Author: hmcmillan

VR Reflection

The virtual reality video I experienced was one featuring a place of mourning in what looked to be a tunneled area. Many people gathered, from immigrant singers to a blind violinist. After it concluded, the gate holding the people inside lowered and they dispersed out into the city.

VR has the potential to be transformative in the publishing medium. Minor things like movie set visits to major events like war coverages can be experienced in the full HD display of a 360 lens and virtual reality glasses. As a result, I think people may end up feeling more for certain events if they are there at the scene nearly experiencing it for themselves.

Final – Programs

Programs

Asylee Women Enterprise specializes in creating activities that assist asylees with life skills that will aid them as they make their transition into life in the United States. These skills, while not necessarily marked as major events on the calendar, are still quite impactful to our asylees.

Each Monday and Wednesday women and men asylum seekers and asylees can participate in our Employment and Education Program and these sessions are held from 10 am – 2 pm with registration being required.

These activities include:

  • ESL (Beginner to Advanced Level Classes)
      • ESL (English as a Second Language) is extremely important to integration into the United States as it is the primary language in the country. Women are taught conversational English, grammar, reading, listening comprehension, writing, and vocabulary.
  • Resume Writing
      • AWE also teaches how to properly construct resumes. Many women making the transition from their former countries have work experience there but don’t know how to properly transfer their experiences into English or standard resume format. This works in conjunction with their ESL lessons.
  • Online Application Assistance
      • Once their English skills have improved and they’ve gained proficiency in resume writing, AWE also offers services to assist with online job applications.  
  • Interviewing Skills
      • No application will ever be good enough to completely negate people skills and etiquette. After helping asylees write tailor their resume to their skillset, AWE also prepares them to go on to the interview process. With instructions on body language and proper words to use, AWE ensures that asylees have developed the necessary skills to succeed in their interview.
  • Basic Driver Education
      • Another major facet of American society is driving. While many countries do have roadways and vehicular transit, the countries where many asylees are fleeing from either don’t have streetlights, lane dividers and the other signals that we do in the United States. So basic driving education gets asylees up to speed with the driving process in the United States, with an education on the various signs and signals.
  • Special Guest Speakers
    • AWE is in constant search for guest speakers on various topics from job opportunities to advice on American city life.

In addition, AWE offers Hospitality Hours on Tuesdays and Thursday (these sessions are held from 10am – 2pm and registration is required) where women asylum seekers and asylees can enjoy activities like:

  • Crafting & Sewing
      • Crafting and sewing allow for the asylees to stay connected to and pass on their cultural practices and creative customs. Things like pots, quilts, and blankets can be made.
  • Computer Time
      • AWE offers free computer time for the women to access the internet for recreational purposes which also greatly assists in improving their overall computer skills through practice.
  • Yoga
      • Yoga is a practice that calms and regulates the mind. With all of the displacement of refugees from their countries and the PTSD that follows, it is essential for refugees that learn ways to address these psychological issues with non-destructive hobbies.
  • Personal Story Writing Classes
    • Writing is a form of expression and many refugees may feel the desire to tell their life story prior to fleeing their countries. These classes can help to cultivate their English writing abilities.

Elevator Pitch

Howard McMillan, Jr.

ENG 256-01

Prof. Licastro

Any non-profit organization needs the help of potential donors to assist in keeping them afloat and thriving. In addition to having a “Donate” page, non-profit organizations must participate in fundraisers and events in order to generate interest in whatever the organization is passionate about. The events that Asylee plan to appear at or hold. The Calendar/News page for AWE could do with a heavy makeover as it is genuinely disorganized and holds information that is outdated. In addition to updating the information to reflect more current and future events that representatives from AWE plan on holding or attending, especially community events that are designed to attract donors and potential volunteers.

I would suggest an interactive calendar on the site so that information can be easily updated and seen. Programs like UpTo allow a calendar to be embedded on your website. The level of creativity is completely up to the designers but the ability to update the calendar will be easy. With this update, the AWE site would allow for potential donors looking on the site to effectively plan for the events listed and have their donations in order while also providing clarity to the casual viewer on the overall activity of AWE as an organization.

Citation:

“The Modern Website Calendar for Groups and Organizations.” UpTo, UpTo, Inc, Web.

Questions for AWE

  1. Which of the three sites did you prefer the most and why?
  2. How would you like to better (creatively) represent AWE’s efforts around the world? Ex. graphs, charts, etc.
  3. How would you want to streamline the donation section of your site? PayPal, for example?
  4. Do you want to stick with the color scheme that you have or do you have something else in mind?
  5. What kind of media would you like displayed on your site?

Rhetorical Analysis: Heifer International

introduction

Heifer International is non-profit organization that serves to eradicate hunger and poverty globally by developing self-efficient communities and donating livestock to those agricultural communities. In order to succeed in their efforts, Heifer has created a website which has a number of features for donations as well as avenues to view their progress on the development of communities where they have a presence. I will be analyzing the site in order to establish how things function and if they succeed in generating interest in Heifer’s efforts.

Audience & Purpose

For starters, the audience for Heifer International are clearly individuals interested in entering the fight against hunger and poverty worldwide. The site is constructed in a way that invites a secondary audience in with a beautiful and engaging conglomeration of media and text that blend beautifully together. One of the primary purposes of Heifer International’s website is introducing an uneducated audience to the hunger and poverty plight around the world. It achieves this by having a large amount of carefully detailed graphs and statistics about the hunger epidemic around the world. Secondarily, the site also shows Heifer’s philosophy and business strategies throughout the world, including how the donations given to Heifer affect the communities and the various types of livestock that can be donated to struggling communities. There is an obvious bias, however since as a nonprofit, Heifer requires donations to function so it is of the utmost importance that they make their mission seem like it is both urgent and successful.

Medium

The choice of a website in the modern age instead of a magazine is very crucial as through the site’s meticulously planned layout, it’s much easier to get to the sections that you actually want to get to. As stated before, the site is filled with pictures and graphs, detailing the statistics of the hunger issue while giving a powerful and positive outlook due to their work. The beige, green and yellow tones of the site are nice choices. They’re good colors without being distracting but subtle without being boring.

Font-wise, the white and browns stand out against beige and green backgrounds. For further emphasis, Heifer’s designers have also included various reds and blues in their heading font selections that draw attention to whatever the site is addressing.

Information Architecture

The site is designed in a way where most of the most basic information is placed directly on the home page. By reading the home page, an interested can see what Heifer International is about and see what they believe. However, if more information is desired, Heifer has their information bar on the top that directs you to their views and their approach to eradicating hunger.

personal experience

Overall, I greatly enjoyed Heifer International’s website. I usually visit websites like this but I found myself lost in the rabbit hole, per se. There’s so much information to read and it’s presented in such an interesting and visually pleasing way that it’s extremely hard to back out once you’re fully invested in getting in.

The information is easy to access and every link seems to take you to a page that constantly reemphasizes the importance of Heifer’s mission and shows you just how widespread their reach is. It’s both inspiring and a bit daunting, knowing just how large their mission is. Because of this, it almost makes you want to donate because it isn’t an easy thing that they plan to do.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d definitely give heifer.org a 9.75, if only because when you first access the site, they try to hit you with a donate now sign up page that is a bit frustrating and annoying.

Howard McMillan, Jr.