Drake University has struggled with and continued to work toward breaking the “Drake bubble”. This concept is that there is mythical separation between the campus and the rest of the ‘real’ world. As part of its mission, Drake has made a claim to develop global citizens. In doing so, the community outside of Drake is drawn upon as part of the classroom. The Engaged Citizen Corps and Office of Service Learning have been created to help live out this mission.
ECC serves to foster positive relations between students and the greater Des Moines community. The students are supposed to get more out of the experience than logging just a couple of hours. Rather, the students learn from their experiences.
The two main demographics being represented through this project are Drake students, particularly those in the ECC, and the Drake nonprofit community. By extension, those who benefit from the community partners are also served as the work of the ECC students is supposed to benefit that organization’s audience.
From my understanding of the ECC program so far, many of the challenges that they are trying to work on come from being a new program. In keeping with that, much of the marketing is being adjusted to accurately and attractively portray what is being done. For instance, I have worked on the ECC web page. In looking it over, there are some choices that could benefit the website from a marketing standpoint. One such change I have worked on is using the opening paragraph as a way of drawing in those who are reading. This project was really about trying to be informative and engaging the readers.
Through working with the ECC and developing an accurate and appealing website, I have been able to see the active work that is being done to break the negative “Drake bubble”. These young individuals and those running the program are really dedicated to making changes within the community.
written by Maddie Miller, English student
