Mikayla McCormic

285 E. 14th

Ave. Apt. 1N

Columbus, OH 43130

(740)974-7067

mccormic.5@osu.edu

https://mikaylamccormic.wordpress.com/

Christa B. Teston, PhD

Assistant Professor, College of Arts and Sciences English Department

506 Denney Hall

164 W. 17th St.

Columbus, OH 43210

Dear Professor Teston,

During my time working with United Way of Central Ohio, I have developed my skills as a

rhetor and learned how to succeed in a nonprofit setting. This experience has been invaluable

toward my future in organizations like United Way, which I hope to pursue once I graduate May

10.

United Way of Central Ohio (UWCO) is like a nonprofit hub that funds and supports many

smaller agencies throughout Columbus and surrounding areas. Being affiliated with so many

agencies sometimes means that not every single organization receives social media attention, but

my assignment with UWCO was to make sure that was fixed. Every week I picked four agencies

to highlight on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in order to create more organic reach for both

those smaller agencies and UWCO as well. This task required a very specific tone, praising the

follower for their ongoing support while also making sure the agency of choice is highlighted in

a way that really reflects its core values. Using different social media platforms also allowed me

to understand the different tones a nonprofit can take: Facebook is factual, Twitter is short and

catchy, and Instagram should be more lighthearted and fun than the other two.

While working with the smaller agencies, I was put in charge of generating social media content

for some of the Awards of Excellence applicants. Each year UWCO holds an Awards of

Excellence event, where the different agencies and partners submit applications showing all they

have done to help fight poverty here in Columbus. My task was to go through all of the different

applications and pull the most important points that I could use for Facebook and Twitter.

Working with the applications while also generating weekly posts caused me to create a detailed

schedule sheet that helped me organize what posts should be created when, and what kind of

content each one would contain. If I was not an organized person before working with UWCO, I

have definitely become one now.

Thank you for your consideration. If you would like more information or examples of my work,

you can find my online portfolio under my information at the top of the page.

All the best,

Mikayla McCormic