8 Things I Learned at OSPA as a Student Employee

May 8, 2024

As I reflect on my time with the Office of Strategy, Planning, and Analysis, I can see how much I have truly grown. I started this position in August 2023 and worked at OSPA for a little over 8 months. I have learned many valuable lessons that have better prepared me for my future as an aspiring strategic communication professional. Each day with OSPA brought about new challenges, skills, and experiences, that I am very thankful for.

Revise, Revise, Revise… Revise Again

When working in design, the review and revision process is an important one. As I worked on various designs to help communicate our strategic plan and annual objectives, I feel that I learned a thing or two about this process. When designing, I learned about the importance of always creating multiple versions and playing around with designs in order to get the right composition. I also found that seeing a design on paper is an extremely important tool to use when deep in the process. Although sometimes frustrating, the review and revision process at OSPA has helped me to further develop many important skills, such as attention to detail, consistency, and time management.

The Art of Mail Merge

It may seem like a small feat, but successfully completing a mail merge was something I was really happy that I learned at OSPA. It’s a lot harder than it looks! To send out Thank You cards and Holiday cards, I found that using mail merge is an extremely important tool. It allowed me to take data from an Excel spreadsheet and efficiently turn it into personalized documents for each recipient. Mail merge is essential for bulk emails, letters, envelopes, etc., all of which are significant parts of professional communication. Having this skill under my belt is something I will definitely take with me in my future career.

Forecasting the Future of Higher Education

Environmental scanning is an important step in the strategic planning process and feel that I learned a lot about this topic. To help with this crucial step, I was tasked with gathering information from the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). Through this, I read through SCUP reports on past and present trends that impact higher education, such as social trends, technology trends, economic trends, and environmental trends, and political trends. Assisting with environmental scanning opened my eyes to a lot of important issues that impact the functionality of colleges and universities all over the country. It taught me that there is so much more that goes into university strategic planning than meets the eye.

Ctrl + S to Success

When working in content creation, having a clear organization of assets is extremely important. From organizing hard drives to searching through hundreds of photos and videos, I witnessed the importance of digital file organization during my time at OSPA. If assets are misplaced or wrongfully named, content creation becomes much more difficult and inefficient. I learned that through meticulous and purposeful digital file organization, all members of a team can easily access any file, helping project progress move smoothly. This is something I have already considered in my own life, and something I know will be important in my future career in public relations.

Strategic Silliness

Although a lot of work at OSPA is very serious, I definitely had the opportunity to be creative and humorous. Throughout my time at OSPA, I got to work on projects for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and St. Patrick’s Day, all while still incorporating the important work that we do. For Halloween and Christmas, I got to explore data analysis a little more, collecting data about my coworkers’ favorite Halloween candies and favorite holiday movies. For Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, I designed and handed out messages with funny strategic planning and data related jokes on them. These projects helped me find ways to connect with co-workers, especially co-workers with expertise in other areas. It was really awesome to see our office come together and get in the spirit! From this, I learned the importance of how to talk about the work that we do in a casual and fun way, as well as the importance of employee appreciation and office unity.

The Balancing Act

When working in design, composition is extremely important. It’s how viewers are guided through the design, and it helps establish hierarchy. However, sometimes, there is no option to alter the text, making it crucial that design elements and text are perfectly balanced. From working on OSPA’s strategic plan and annual objectives one-pagers, I had to make careful design decisions (and revisions, of course) in order to get the right composition, considering hierarchy, whitespace, alignment, contrast, visual cues, typography, and more. So much goes in to creating the appropriate design to accompany text and information. Through my work at OSPA, I was able to learn and further develop many design skills.

Technology Toolbox

Within my work at OSPA, I had the opportunity to work with a variety of online platforms that taught me many valuable skills. For some platforms, like programs within the Adobe Suite, I was able to further develop skills I already had, but for other platforms, I was able to learn and completely develop new skills. For communication and collaboration, our team utilized Microsoft Teams, which I am now extremely comfortable using for any purpose. Within Microsoft Teams, I also learned how to use Planner, which helped my team and I effectively manage tasks, track progress, and set deadlines, which I found to be very helpful in organizing my time and workload. Additionally, for project management, I was introduced to AchieveIt, which was crucial for aligning our strategic goals and tracking their progress. For design, I was introduced to Envato Elements, which was an extremely helpful tool in finding digital assets and resources, as well as creative inspiration for various projects. Overall, learning to use these various programs equipped me with important skills in communication, design, and project management, all of which will help me in my future career.

Lights, Camera, Learning

Going into my position with OSPA, I had minimal professional video work experience. I was comfortable editing with Adobe Premiere Pro and shooting on my iPhone, but I didn’t know a lot about camcorders and setting up equipment for shoots. However, I was able to gain hands-on experience with equipment setup and recording. I was able to assist with the planning of a series of videos, which taught me a lot about the behind-the-scenes aspects of video production. In the future, I am confident that the skills I gained from OSPA will help me with any video work.

A young woman wearing her cap and gown graduation regalia standing in front of the brick building of Bryan Hall and clock tower on the WSU Pullman campus.

As I approach graduation and the beginning of my professional career, I am more appreciative than ever of my time with OSPA. I underwent significant personal and professional growth that I am forever grateful for. The future is nerve-wracking, yet exciting, and I am positive that the skills I gained from OSPA will help me in the future, no matter where I end up.

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