Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Topic Selection & Unbridled Excitement

As a first year masters student in the University of Michigan, School of Public Health, the opportunity to get a taste of life outside of my disciplinary bubble is refreshing and a welcomed challenge.

After anticipating the chance to test my sea legs in social marketing for public health, I am now set with the task of choosing an organization to write a plan for.

In order to focus my interests and options, let's unpack the possibilities:

-UHS Stay in The Blue-
As a member of the School of Public Health Social Marketing Club I have been working on assisting the Stay in the Blue campaign with their campus engagement efforts. To work on Stay in the Blue for this course would be a great extension of what they are already doing, but may duplicate a lot of what the director of the program has done as part of another course. Gathering data for this organization may be less of a problem due to having already established a relationship. I haven't discussed this possibility yet with the director, but would like to keep mulling this idea over as I consider the options.

-CAPS Outreach and Education-
I am interested in mental health (specifically depression and anxiety management and the effect on other behavior) and curious about the promotion of services and awareness efforts on the UM campus. I am also interested in how possible stigma around mental health issues effects the use of any services and information seeking behavior by UM students. I am not currently involved with CAPS in any professional capacity, but I would be really interested in teaming up with their outreach and promotion department to come up with some cool ideas for increasing awareness on campus and de-stigmatizing mental health. I have emailed the the Assistant Director of Outreach and Education to try and establish a connection.

-Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation (DHDC)-
As part of a group project for HBHE 641, Material and Methods, I have been working with DHDC to develop a market analysis and plan for their technology hub. Though we have spent a lot of time on the market analysis, we will not be able to develop a full marketing plan within the scope of the course and I believe the plan would be greatly benefited by my applying the methods taught in MKT 614. I have suggested to my professor, Dr. Melissa Valerio, that I may be able to extend my work on the project into a more comprehensive marketing plan by making it my project for this course. She was really into the idea and offered to connect me with the marketing person at DHDC. From DHDC's website, here is their mission:
Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation (DHDC) is a non-profit organization committed to make a difference by creating life changing opportunities for youth and their families.
Areas they could use help with are developing their marketing of their technology center on their website and to the community. The group project for HBHE 641 has been working on the market in detroit and who might use the center, and by developing a full marketing plan in MKT 614 I would be able to assist the organization further in gaining more sustainable funding through rental use of the center.


So there you go. Three potential organizations, three different topics. Which should I choose? Which will be most benefited by the project?

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