Student Life Handbook Senior Project

 Today marked the final moments of the project. I took the printed versions of the pamphlet to the art room and cut out multiple versions until I had three that I really liked. It took a lot of attempts to cut and fold the pamphlet out until I got the hang of it, and cut three very nice versions out all in a row. I was super pleased to see how it looked when properly cut out, folded, and on nicer paper than just sheet paper. I spent a lot of hours into this project and I am very proud with how it turned out. I learned a lot about working with other people and getting a professional project done. If I could do this project again, I wouldn't do a lot differently, as I believe my process was very thorough and good, but I would change a few things. First of all, I would have been more aggressive about getting information, as I found that I had a lot of holes that I had to fill in the later days of the project. Also, I would have reached out for more professional help earlier, as I trie

  Today I had multiple stressful moments as I thought I was wrapping my project up. First, I looked at the finished pdf, only to see that there were multiple writing mistakes, which made me very worried. Luckily, I was able to make these changes very quickly and could move on from that. Afterward, I went to admissions to start the printing process, which was also very hard. When we printed out the initial version, it was in shambles. Alicia, Tracy, and I tried multiple times, cutting it out in different ways, folding it uniquely, and printing it in different variations, which consistently failed, and made me worry that I had made a mistake during the designing process. I talked to the designer, and they told me that version wasn't for printing but rather for just for show, so I could see what it would look like online. After being shared the printable version things instantly looked better. Although I couldn't cut it properly due to Solucom being short of an exacto-knife, I pla

  Oliver Barkan 4/13/2023 Second Week Reflection This second week felt very repetitive as I continued to work on the information gathering and writing phase of my project even a week after I thought it would be done. This project has surprised me every day, because of how it has made me constantly change my approach each day. At first, I thought I would have a concrete schedule to get me through this project, but this was debunked very quickly as I had realized that the project does not go according to plan and needs to be done from what is needed. Second, I had thought I would be able to do this project all by myself, but I realized that if I wanted a good finished project, I would need professional help. Also, I constantly had to gather new information all the way until the end of the second week, sometimes using drastic methods to do so. I realized throughout this project that I could not do the work all on my own, and If I wanted a good, neat, and professional finished project, I

Today was highly important for the finished product of the project. I finished the digital version of the project, which was a major relief for me. Although I didn't directly follow the plan that I made, I was still able to finish a major point of the project on the day that I planned to. This helped me realize that even for a project where a plan may not direct the exact course, it is still important to make a plan accordingly. Although I had all the content, writing, and photos, it took a lot of changing certain things until I found the perfect version that I want to print out and show on Wednesday. I am very proud of what my work has shown so far. Throughout the last few days, I will be working on printing the project on various papers until I find the one I like the most. The printing will be an aggravating process as it takes a unique way of cutting the paper to make it right, which may take multiple tries until I get it perfect. Total Hours: 50 hours.

 Today I had to create a new design for the project. Instead of the one 5-inch by 5-inch square that unfolds, I have switched to an 11-inch by 16-inch pamphlet that unfolds into 2 pages at first, and then 4 pages after the second unfolding. This was because there was too much information to fit in the small squares. Because of this change, I had to consolidate the day-student and international-student sections onto one page, to fill all of the pages without one being left over. There was a problem with this, however, with both of the sections combined, they were slightly too big for the page, which I will be figuring out tomorrow with the professional web designer. By tomorrow, I will have a finished draft of the online design. After creating the online design, I will have to print it out and cut it properly, which I will be trying on multiple different types of papers. Total Hours: 46 hours.

 Today marked the last step of the information-gathering and writing phases. I am very glad I have these phases over with, as it marks a critical point in my project. I had expected to be done with these phases at the end of last week, but it took all the way until today to get it done. This really shows how unpredictable this project has been for me, constantly making me change my approach in order to have it be the best it can be in its finished state. I also planned out a meeting for tomorrow with the professional designer to put the final information into an online design. Tomorrow, I plan to have the online design finished, so I can start printing on Saturday. I feel like I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, by that, I mean seeing the project finished, without any more interruptions changing the course. Total Hours: 42 hours.

 Today, I realized that I had to redo a lot of my work, this realization was incredibly aggravating, as I felt like I the work I had done before would all be for nothing. My mom read over the writing I had been doing and noticed a major flaw in it. She saw that my writing was written very punctually, almost like an essay, which does not work at all for this project. She helped me rewrite a lot of the work I did because I did not know how to write it in a way where it would be fitting for the project. Luckily, she had worked in communications at various companies in the past and was a master at doing this. Also, she helped change my old writing into the newly edited version, which was a lot better than having to completely redo everything. I was also able to expand the writing even further in the sections that needed them more. I worked solely on the writing today, and am very pleased with the work I got done, as I felt I was going to be in a world of catchup. Tomorrow, I plan to comple

 Today, I was able to start designing my first prototype for the design of this project. It was very hard work that required lots of thinking before each step I made. The design will be multiple 5-inch by 5-inch squares, which unfold until there are 5 to 9 squares. The first square will be the cover, with the proctor logo, the title of my project, and maybe a photo of Proctor's campus. It is very hard work that requires a lot of thinking because when each square is flipped, I have to think about the backside and what is revealed under each new square. This may sound less hard than it actually is, but it gets exceedingly hard the more squares that get revealed. Also, I did some more interviewing and information gathering to fill some of the gaps I had before. Tomorrow, I will continue to interview more people, and write this information down so I can use it in the design. Although the design work is very complicated, I am glad I got some of it down, because it finally showed some of

Today, I covered a large number of topics and got a large amount of work done. I met with my mentor and Alicia at noon to get some help finding the correct fonts, font sizes, and Pantone colors, which are especially important to the designing phase of my project. We also talked about the printing of the project and how it would take many different prototypes before I would have a finished product. I had a realization today, that this project will not fit into a perfect plan. I had thought that I came up with a good plan for the whole project, but soon after, I realized that each day, I had to play it by year and do the work that was needed, not the work that was planned out to be done that way. I contacted the web designer further today, and I shared with her some of the resources we would need to create the first prototype, which I plan to have finished by this Wednesday. This week marks the first step of the designing phase, which will be very difficult and take a lot of patience. I

  Oliver Barkan 4/13/2023 First Week Reflection This first week of senior project has been a very fun and interesting process. I have greatly enjoyed being able to work on my own time and on a project that I find interesting. I find that I am the most productive in the mornings and by noon, so I try to get most of my work done around then. Throughout the project I will have had 4 different stages; Information gathering, writing and organizing, designing, and finally, editing. I have been able to finish two of the stages in the first week, and am ready to start the third phase, designing on Monday. The first stage, Information gathering, was very fun and social, requiring the opinions of many different students and people involved with Proctor. I had initially sent out a survey to all of the students with a ten dollar Jake’s reward that was randomly selected among the people who had responded. Because the survey was sent out to the whole school, I had expected to get a lot of respon

 Today, I was able to get a really good plan as of how my next week would turn out. Although I thought I had a plan for my project already set in stone, I now can clearly see what I will need to do for each day this week. The first three days, I will work on designing drafts of what the pamphlet would look like. This will be very hard and require many different attempts to get right, but once finished, it should be easy sailing. I hope to get this done by the end of Wednesday, but some additional time may be needed to finish this. Today, I was able to add more information to the “for parents” section, and further content the professional designer to prepare for next week. For Monday, I hope that I will be able to come up with at least one draft of the pamphlet just to see how one might look and see what I want to change. Total Hours: 25

 Today was exhausting. I contacted my mom's friend further to create a concrete time tomorrow and to prepare in advance for when I call her. To prepare for the meeting, I showed her some of the design components Proctor uses on their Website. For example, I showed her fonts, colors, logos, etc. Doing this should make the process easier and quicker on the phone tomorrow. I also continued to write and organize information onto a Google doc that I have writing on for the past few days. I have realized that the information-gathering and writing phases are something that will continue until the last few days of the project when I will be finalizing the finished project. Today, I was able to accomplish my goals by gaining information to put in a "for parents" section and communicating further about working with my mom's friend tomorrow. Tomorrow, I plan to start to create a place where I can place some of the writing that I have made so far, and fully visualize where I want

Today was rather unproductive, I worked today mostly on communicating with others. I contacted my mom's friend, the graphic designer, to come up with plans to work together in the next week or so. Yesterday, I had planned to get in touch with my mom's friend and conclude the information-gathering phase by the end of today, however, after being given some friendly advice by my mother, I have decided to extend this period and continue to gather information even as I work on the writing and designing phase. Also, I have decided to add a section to my pamphlet that won't pertain to new students, but for parents sending their children off for the first time. To gain information on this section, I will be interviewing my mom, (Who has plenty to say about it) and Petra Shaw, who should be more than helpful. I also came across the realization that I will have to add a section for international students as well, because their experience going into Proctor is far more drastic. To add

 Today was an extremely productive day. I worked from 11:15 until 1:45 profusely on organizing the data I had received from the survey and a few interviews. I was very proud of myself after this because I had accomplished a lot of work in the 2 and a half hours I worked. Today, I wanted to start the writing phase of my project, which I did do and even exceeded how much I thought I would get done. After a short break, I was feeling even more productive and was even able to conduct more interviews to gather more data and important quotes that I was also able to implement into my writing section. Tonight, I plan to work for another 30 minutes to an hour, contacting my mom's friend who is a web designer and can help me create good designs for the pamphlet/booklet I will be creating because I was so productive earlier and am still feeling ready to work, I will most likely conduct more interviews in my dorm to gather even more information. My goals for tomorrow are to conclude the inform

 Today was a much more relaxing day than yesterday. I started my work day at 11 am, which was the same as the day before. I checked the results from the survey I sent out and was disappointed to find out that only 33 people had responded. I will most likely send a follow-up email tonight telling students their last chance to fill out the form will be tonight. I spent a lot of time today coming up with questions and creating and finishing a solid interview plan to get students' opinions. I also spent some time reviewing the data that had come through from the survey. From that information, I was able to get a good basis of what I would like to write. I wanted today to be one of the last steps of the information-gathering phase, so I can start getting more writing done that might be used in the actual blog. Tomorrow, I will spend time interviewing these students and reviewing the data from the survey and interview so I can start the writing section of my project. I will also have to

Today I was exhausted, so I took the liberty of sleeping in until 10:30. After a quick shower, I headed over to the library at 11 to do some initial planning work. I was able to come up with a good day-by-day plan to get this project done and also started creating a survey for underclassmen to fill out with a ten-dollar Jakes reward. I asked them specific questions about student life, sports, dorming, and academics. I worked from 11 am to 12 in the library and then got some lunch and sat in the sun until 1 pm. After that break, I went back to my room to get some more work done on creating the survey and prepared questions for an interview with a senior friend in the dorm. I worked from 1 pm to 4 pm in my room, and I then left after to go to the gym for Weightroom. After I complete this blog, I plan to send out the survey for underclassmen and do another hour of work from 8 to 9 pm. This work will most likely entail checking to see if the survey was sent out and working properly and cre