Heather Thoreson’s Blog

 Contact:
Heather Thoreson
James Madison University
E-mail: h [dot] thoreson [at] yahoo [dot] com
Blog:  http://heatherthoreson.com/

Profile:

• Heather Thoreson is a junior at James
  Madison University.  She is majoring in Media Arts and Design with a concentration in Corporate Communication and minoring in Communication Studies.  Heather will be graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in May 2010.  While attending James Madison University, Heather has attained an ever-expanding set of skills in proficient communication, writing and design: both technical and visual. 

 

Related Coursework:

• Experience in teamwork to create an advertising campaign for Cat’s Cradle to increase their foster care network by increasing awareness.  This campaign included setting goals and objectives, defining audiences, developing strategies to reach each public, making a budget and evaluating our tactics. 

“Thanks for the effort you put into your final campaigns books and presentations. Top-to-bottom, I thought they were the best I’ve seen since I’ve been involved in campaigns courses… The strength was that each team, while duplicating the others in one or two places, had something unique — better research, a more focused public, a unique combination of tactics; and all the presentations grew out of solid strategic thinking.”

-John Guiniven, Professor, Principles of Advertising

• Developed fundamental skills of design through graphic production of magazine layouts, newsletters, logos, posters and website design. 
• Developed skills in corporate media writing producing a hard news articles, news releases, VNRs and podcasts. 
• Produced videos and audio tracks for personal use and for use on the web.

 Activities:

• Co-President of Madison Advertising Club.  Work to create opportunities and to help others gain experience in the advertising field. 
• Production Manager of a feminist magazine, Sister Speak.  Work with staff members to create the layout, cover, and overall design of the magazine. 

 Computer Skills:

• Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver.
• iMovie, Garageband and Audacity.
• Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Windows Movie Maker.

Experience:

• Caretaker at George Mason University Kid Care.  This included ensuring a safe environment, mediating disputes, overseeing customer service, keeping work area stable and creating daily activities. 
• Server for special events at James Madison University.  Work in teams or individually to set-up, serve and clean up events for five to 400 people.  This work demands excellent communication skills to work efficiently and stay organized while keeping the client happy.

 Samples:

• Writing sample of a social media research paper  on effective blogs and podcasts.
• An assignment to create a VNR for tattoo safety.
• Our team’s PowerPoint for the Cat’s Cradle Campaign.
• Advertisement for Cat’s Cradle campaign.
• Two half-sheet advertisements for the Cat’s Cradle campaign.
• A podcast on measuring social media.

• A video on why measuring social media matters.