Some students do not give Sinclair Community College’s marketing department much thought; however, the department provides many services, such as helping students adjust to life at the college, showing students what classes and programs are available, and promoting campus events.
“What don’t we do? What I do is Sinclair’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr and any other social media we may use now. I also manage the calendar and events,” said Michelle Morgan, a digital communities specialist in the Marketing Department.
Along with Morgan there are 11 people who take part in a variety of tasks including graphic design for print and media, photography and social networking, with the goal of reaching out to the entire college body and the community.
The department includes Senior Director Rebecca Butler, College Communications Manager Natasha Baker, Manager Ed Vanderbush, Graphic Designers Kelly Vogelsong, Michelle Gonsiska and Kathleen Kiggins; Digital Communities Specialist Michelle Morgan, Administrative Assistant Maria Rausch and Student Assistants Amanda Leonard, Mandy Boellke and Bethany Farris.
“I’m mostly graphic design. Most of my media is print based but we’ve been overlapping to the web a lot. Some of my bigger customers are fine and performing arts, athletics and the engineering department,” Vogelsong said.
The job duties of the marketing department are varied, according to Vogelsong.
“A lot of times when we can’t hire our professional photographer, we get asked to run and do the photography,” she said.
One of the more challenging aspects of working for Sinclair is the size of the campus, according to Vogelsong. With the main campus, four learning centers and other places where classes are held it can be hard to keep everyone involved.
“We make sure the overall picture for the college is unified – that we have one voice for what we are trying to express – and that’s a challenge because we have 20,000 voices on Sinclair and we have to get them all on one page,” Vogelsong said. “It’s just the time and effort for putting it all together.”
The types of projects that Sinclair’s Marketing Department has been working on recently include the Art Hop, Club Pride and Pink at Sinclair, which was for breast cancer awareness.
“We also promote the whole season for theater, all the choral concerts, music concerts, all the artists, even general financial aid stuff that needs to go out. Almost anything that needs to bear the Sinclair logo and needs to be communicated,” Vogelsong said.
Every year, the marketing department promotes the International Series, which is a series of events that promote understanding of other cultures.
“We’ve been doing the international series so long; we’ve kind of got it done to a process. We usually have all the topics for a year and we try to work on it from a month to month basis,” Vogelsong said. “We just finished up India. When one finishes up, we start working on the other one.”
Many Sinclair students are confused when first starting out which is a problem that Sinclair focuses on.
“I liked working on the ‘Get Ready Guide’ last fall for the first time just because things were being written on Facebook that students were confused about,” Morgan said. “I actually applied and enrolled and took the placement test – I did the whole thing.”
Working for the Marketing Department is not easy; the employees work constantly to promote Sinclair, according to Vogelsong.
“There’s a lot of networking. You have to go to meetings; you have to go to events. It can be draining when you want to be at your computer finishing your work,” she said. “But at the same time, there are so many people you meet and get to know and see around campus. The campus is so huge and you realize, ‘wow, there are so many people that I know.’”
The benefits of working for Sinclair’s marketing department are being able to take part in “the whole social aspect,” according to Vogelsong.
“We’re getting out there. We’re meeting needs. Plus you learn so much about the programs,” she said. “There’s so much that goes on at Sinclair that I don’t think people know about until you’re out and about.”