Greetings,

With this portfolio, I intend to prove my learning outcomes in communication and cross-media. Communication is one of my strengths. I work with cross-media as I have been editing and writing for newspapers since 1999 and the industry has changed considerably in that period of time, going from a paper product to paper and digital products. I am currently a full-time special sections editor at a newspaper. I intend to demonstrate in this portfolio my areas of expertise which are communication skills and cross-media production: speaking effectively and articulately, writing clearly and concisely, and listening with thoughtful objectivity. Through life experiences, I have learned critical thinking skills such as analyzing problems, ideas, and situations; theorizing and reflecting; and making decisions that end uncertainty. I find that people like it when someone has the answers.

In my job as an editor, I have networked and interacted with peers, supervisors, and subordinates. I enjoy being a team player and I encourage and appreciate the contribution of others. At the same time, I can lead and effectively oversee and direct people. When the budget at work allowed for additional help, I hired and managed part-time special sections paginators. I often take the role of leader in team projects, motivate, inspire, and delegate tasks that need to be done so as to meet deadlines.

As an interest outside of my work, I became involved as a historian for a nonprofit women’s club. I organized the historical documents the club had archived since 1892 and discovered many historically significant civic accomplishments of the group that have largely been forgotten. I wrote a grant for CLUB, which was awarded through the State Archives, to fund a professional conservationist to preserve the club’s archives. I put together three public presentations on the history of the club and created a Facebook page to create public awareness about the civic engagement of the club’s members. I include this information here because I had to persuade the members who are computer illiterate that the use of Internet-based social media allows for a presence and audience interaction not possible through old media.

For several years I have worked part-time in the marketing office at the college I attend. I was hired as a journalist to interview and write profiles about the full-time faculty, and students at the college. Many of these profiles have been published in a local magazine and some in the local newspaper.

In my marketing, editing, and historian roles, I organize facts, concepts, and principles for print and digital versions of information products. My e-knowledge is deep. I have built my own drupal-based website at denisescammon.com. I built that website just so that I could better understand the drupal-based Content Management System we use at the newspaper. All of my online courses have required above-average knowledge of computer applications such as BlackBoard, Skype, making podcasts, PowerPoints, slideshows, and online test taking.

My reason for submitting this portfolio is to request 11 credits for learning outside the college classroom. Reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of learning that has occurred outside of school, I have examined my skills in public relations, graphics and design, marketing,

advertising, and social networking, as they pertain to communication and cross-media. This reflection and compiling information for my portfolio has been a learning process in and of itself.

Sincerely,