B:Social Students talk Trust, Communication, and Collaboration
Have you ever wished you could make a real difference in your community? In 2010, Communications and Media Studies Professor Aimee Knight, founded the Beautiful Social Research Collaborative to do just that. The Beautiful Social Research Collaborative is a non-profit organization and class at Saint Joseph’s University that fosters collaboration between organizations enacting transformative change in their communities and communications students academically trained in a variety of skills ranging from media production to social media management to graphic design.
This semester, fellow Charlotte Ashley is leading students Katerina Calvo, Mary Kate Fazzino, Juliet Gentilucci, Julia Noone, and Noah Tincher in a collaboration with Venice Island Performing Arts and Recreation Center.
I sat down with these students to learn more about their collaboration with Venice Island.
What community partner have you guys been paired up with and what is the ultimate goal of the partnership?
Julia: We're working with Venice Island Performing Arts Center. And our goal is to help her revamp her Instagram and make it look friendly and fun.
Charlotte: And kind of spruce it up because she posts, but she posts the same thing over and over. So, we're working on changing that
Mary Kate: And taking pictures.
How have you guys been planning or pacing yourselves to complete the end goal?
Juliet: We have bi-weekly meetings with her. We go over what she's looking for and what we've accomplished in the past week or so and then we get feedback and make a plan for the upcoming week.
What progress have you guys made so far? And how did you go about it?
Julia: Well, we've started creating flyers for her. We just spoke to her about them. We haven't sent them to her yet but we're probably going to after class. We're hoping she can like and appreciate them and that I guess we can work both ways with her. Yeah.
Charlotte: And especially her being a new community partner, a lot of it is building trust with her. That's like our biggest thing right now. And she gave us the Instagram password. So that seems like she's starting to trust us, slowly but surely. So that's like the biggest thing for now, but then obviously working on the Instagram as well.
What have your experiences been like working together as a group?
Noah: Our experience working together as a group has been great. I think we all work together just fine. There haven't been any conflicts.
Julia: I think we know how to have a fun time, but we also know how to be very focused when it comes to working together and getting things resolved as well.
Mary Kate: We also have group roles, which helps, and we all do our part.
What challenges have you all faced in this project?
Charlotte: At the beginning of the semester, we kind of ran with the impression we were making the calendar for their events that they already had. But when we went to their website we saw they had a calendar for events. It was color coded, so it looked really good. And so we told her that and we switched gears to make more of a content calendar.
Katerina: Yeah, definitely confusion on what tasks she wanted us to complete.
Charlotte: But now we're good. We spoke with her.
How did you guys fix the issue?
Katerina: We got on a Zoom call and we all came prepared with a bunch of questions. We expressed our concerns and our confusion, and she was able to explain what she wanted. We’ve just been figuring it out from there.
Charlotte: Yeah, also, since it's her first time working with B:Social she's still learning just like we are, so we kind of had to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. That's what's nice about B:Social: you don't work for the community partner, you work with the community partner. So it's not like we were doing something wrong. We were just unclear about what we were doing.
What have you learned from being a part of B:Social? Did you see an improvement in any skills? Or did you learn anything new?
Noah: I think working in a group has been really important. Just like, having one goal and working with other people to achieve that.
Mary Kate: I've ran different Instagrams before but it's just been by myself, so it's been really cool to work with an actual company and kind of bounce ideas off of them and have a partnership instead of just doing it on our own.
Charlotte: I think for me, as a fellow, learning to trust group members was a big thing because I'm the kind of person who likes to have things done. And with this group specifically, everyone's on top of what they're supposed to be doing, so I don't really have to worry. I’ve been learning to trust other group members to do their work in a timely manner.
Julia: I think it goes back to teamwork as well as working with a community that's so close to us and just being able to work together and help others, which I think has been great.
Juliet: I've learned the art of collaboration with both group members and our community partner. I’ve also learned when to ask questions and about wanting to put forth the best work for our community partner because it benefits not only Venice island, but also the surrounding community members that attend the performing arts facility.
Katerina: I mean, I’ve had experience working with different organizations and committees through their social medias, and it's been fun being able to do that with a group of people. And I like the academic aspect also, like getting to learn about the golden circle and all these other things that are important to think about when you're working with people.
How has being a part of B:Social impacted you guys personally, academically, or professionally?
Noah: I think just realizing where there is need as far as what we're doing with social media and how a lot of nonprofits don't have the benefits or knowledge to do this themselves. I think that's been really important to understand.
Mary Kate: Well, I feel like professionally I've learned the importance of working together. I think working in B:Social and having a group to bounce ideas off but also working with a community partner has really taught me about communication and professional group settings.
Charlotte: For me personally, it's given me a leadership role within a class and as I've been like applying to internships, talking about being in a leadership role has been super helpful, especially with the competitive nature of a lot of internships now.
Julia: I think professionally, this feels more than just a course that you're taking. I feel like it's really cool because it really does help you in your work life. And when you are working with other partners around you, I think that whole team aspect of it is just so great.
Juliet: B:Social has given the opportunity to work with a community partner outside of St. Joe's and learn about their mission, their organization, their values, and really work on that collaborative nature to get the best end product possible for both our community partner and our work through B:Social
Katerina: Through B:Social, I was able to develop my philanthropic values, and be a part of a class that matters. I just think it was interesting, being able to be more hands-on is definitely a fun resume builder but also a fun way to meet new people to say hi to in the halls [of Saint Joe’s]
Carina Seabra interviewed Charlotte Ashley, Katerina Calvo, Mary Kate Fazzino, Juliet Gentilucci, Julia Noone, and Noah Tincher in person on March 13, 2024. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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