Novel plan for ADVANCE’s Communication Team gained national attention
Students chosen for the multimedia communication internship gained experience in interviewing, digital content, analytics and teamwork
The 15-page grant proposal for ADVANCE at UNM had all the usual application elements: goals, a budget, a timeline, a team of Co-PIs.
The proposal, written in 2015 to the National Science Foundation, also had something novel: a communication component that would collect and disseminate news and information about the program and highlight the research, teaching and service done by UNM faculty.
It was a bit of a gamble, given that most grant proposals emphasize funding other types of staff positions or relegate communication to a smaller role.
But it worked: ADVANCE was funded in 2016, and the multimedia communication program that arose would go on to give 10 UNM students the chance to learn about multimedia communication and became part of work cited as a model by the NSF.
“One of the best decisions I made related to the grant was to hire Kate to set up the multimedia communication internship program and create the Communication Team, which went on to create an outstanding body of work that rivals what large multimedia communication agencies could do,” said ADVANCE Director Julia Fulghum, referring to Kate Cunningham, who taught multimedia communication at UNM at the time.
Content across platforms
The paid student interns who became part of the project produced hundreds of stories, videos, social media posts, digital messaging displays, newsletters, posters, fliers and more. The content was published on the ADVANCE website, YouTube channel, social media accounts, newsletters, and picked up by university communication partners. It also gave students a body of work to use as they applied for their first jobs after graduation.
Their work included videos highlighting the work of Professor Laura Crossey in the Valles Caldera and the research of Professor Jenn Rudgers at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Other videos featured the work of Professor Hannah Mattson on an ancient pueblo field house near Placitas, N.M. and of Professor Melanie Moses and the NASA Swarmathon robotics competition she created. Access more videos.
Interns also created video and written profiles of the UNM Women in STEM Award winners, countless social media posts and short news stories, fliers, web pages and even a Facebook live show. The effort also included regular communication about ADVANCE programming and opportunities and information for faculty.
The students had a variety of backgrounds including Interdisciplinary film and digital media, communication and journalism, computer science, mechanical engineering and chemistry.
Real world portfolio building
Within ADVANCE’s overarching goal of fostering faculty success at UNM, the communication team had an objective of its own: give students the agency to produce and publish news and information for a real website.
Students started by learning how to find faculty-related news story ideas on campus, how to interview faculty, and how to explain their work to a large audience. They also rotated through mini learning modules on video shooting and editing, photography, web design, graphic design, social media and analytics.
Cunningham built the program on a newsroom model, which emphasizes narrative storytelling, quick updates to the website and social platforms, and a commitment to accuracy and curiosity.
“The most important lesson was learning to ask questions and stay genuinely curious about the community around me,” said Adrian Abeyta, a former intern who was an engineering undergraduate student at UNM. “I never knew when I was about to stumble into something really interesting, and that curiosity has shaped how I approach my work even today.”
“The skills I learned at ADVANCE had a huge impact on my career. Working in the STEM/research fields, the communication, storytelling, and media skills I developed made it much easier to apply for and win research grants, and they gave me confidence when presenting complex ideas to different audiences,” said Abeyta, who went on to grad school at UT-Austin and is now a principal machine learning software engineer at Red Hat.
The work of the ADVANCE Communication Team caught the attention of program reviewers from the NSF, who visited UNM for two days to learn about the project as part of a routine evaluation.
“The media/communications piece of ADVANCE at UNM provides a model for other institutions seeking to increase awareness and recognition for faculty and program accomplishments while also involving students as interns in a way that achieves broader impacts,” the reviewers said in their assessment.
The review team praised the STEM Shoutouts and Women in STEM publicity efforts in particular and said the work done by ADVANCE “should be publicized by NSF as potential best practices at other institutions.”
Going beyond classroom work
Felina Martinez, who majored in journalism and Spanish at UNM, said the internship helped her practice the things she was studying.
“It was fulfilling to be able to apply what I was learning in class to real-world projects that supported an amazing program. I especially appreciated the interdisciplinary approach that allowed me to build upon multiple skills at once,” Martinez said.
The real-world experience “really helped hone my skills and increased my overall confidence and knowledge in what I was doing,” she said. “It definitely stood out on my resume and, I believe, made all the difference in landing a job after college in a field that can sometimes be tricky to find work in – especially since it demonstrated I had knowledge and experience with a variety of media mediums,” said Martinez, who worked as a news reporter at the Valencia County News-Bulletin and a media coordinator at Explora before her current job as a communications specialist with the media and marketing team at the ABQ BioPark.
Other interns went on to use their storytelling skills in marketing as well.
“I knew I wanted to use my journalism degree in a more marketing and communications-focused way, and ADVANCE gave me the building blocks to build a career working in marketing,” said Sarah East, the marketing and communications manager at Visit Albuquerque who previously worked as a producer at KOB-TV.
“I use the skills I learned at ADVANCE daily, and my experience there was more beneficial to me in the long-run than many of my college courses,” she said.
Makayla Grijalva used the communication skills she learned to become a news reporter at the Valencia County News-Bulletin and later a public relations coordinator with the New Mexico Department of Higher Education.
“ADVANCE at UNM gave me the ability to conduct better interviews, fine tune my short form editing skills and improve my writing in a constructive and non-judgmental environment,” said Grijalva, who is now pursuing a Master’s degree in youth development.
“It’s not a single memory, but the people were the best part of the job. I have encountered several in my professional career and it’s always fun to catch up and reminisce on our time at ADVANCE,” she said.
Helene Walker, an intern who studied chemistry as an undergrad at UNM and is now an associate scientist at Amgen, said she enjoyed creating ADVANCE’s STEM Shoutouts – digital high fives for faculty to highlight positive news.
“I really enjoyed creating the STEM Shoutouts. It gave me a chance to explore the different research avenues within UNM, while simultaneously being inspired by the innovative work being performed by women at the university, an avenue that I later explored myself.”
“This was my first internship and I will forever be grateful for the mentorship that I received, as well as the flexibility with dealing with a student’s schedule. I feel like it helped me build a foundation for future educational and professional endeavors,” said Walker, who is a former researcher at Cornell University and a former Sandia National Laboratories intern pipeline coordinator in the lab’s Global Biological and Chemical Security department.
Teaming up across campus
Retired UNM distinguished professor Miguel Gandert, who served on the ADVANCE Communication Team’s advisory board, said the program’s hands-on aspect gave students invaluable experience.
At the time he worked with the board, Gandert was the director of the Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media program, which helped connect interns with ADVANCE and offered the use of its equipment.
“As director of IFDM, I felt really strongly about what was going on at ADVANCE because it gave people real skills. Students were able to use what we were teaching in classes and make those things into professional work of use to the program and the university,” he said.
Finding paid internships on campus that gave students something to show for their work was rare, he said.
“This was a place where students were able to create full blown finished products. They had real world responsibilities because their work was used by the program and utilized within the context of the university.”
Gandert said the partnership with IFDM was a good example of how ADVANCE collaborates across campus.
“It was a good example of creating partnerships with other programs on campus. It developed a community within the university.”
Looking back
The ADVANCE Communication Team over 10 years has produced hundreds of videos of UNM faculty doing and explaining their research. Please enjoy some of our favorites! Visit our YouTube channel for more.