URMA Live: Won't You Be Our Neighbors: Engaging Local Audiences in Campus Discovery
This URMA Live took a deep dive into strategies for bridging the gap between campus and community. Using real-world examples — ranging from K-12 field trips to the development of a science communication minor for graduate students — our speakers talked about diverse pathways for making your institution’s research more accessible. Attendees walked away with practical solutions for common hurdles, including techniques for securing faculty buy-in and participation, promoting outreach events, and establishing metrics to measure success.
Arts and Sciences graduate students weave community connections into their work
Graduate students have a reputation for being solitary creatures, tucked away in a lab or in a corner of the library, diligently working away at a research project. But graduate education is more than mastering expertise in a specific discipline. Increasingly, collaboration and community engagement are essential to student success as graduate students look for opportunities that prepare them for their careers, whether that’s as a researcher or outside of academia.
In the College of Arts and Sciences, one option for building those skills and connections is a graduate fellowship program administered by the college’s Office of Engagement. Graduate Engagement Assistants (GEAs) work with community partners, in collaboration with faculty and staff advisors, to integrate their expertise into their partners’ work and in turn learn from experts in the communities that welcome them.
College of Arts and Sciences launches Arts and Humanities AI Institute (AHAII) to support research and teaching
The College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University has launched the Arts and Humanities AI Institute (AHAII), an innovative center that brings together scholarship, teaching, creative exploration and public engagement to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and the human experience. Developed to expand on Ohio State’s AI Fluency Initiative, which integrates AI skills and experiences into the undergraduate curriculum, AHAII will build on the college’s distinctive strengths, as well as on faculty expertise in AI foundations and applications in departments ranging from art and design to linguistics and philosophy.
ASC Marketing and Communications Workshop: Mastering Webinars
Arts and Sciences Marketing and Communications Workshops bring together communicators across the college for virtual and in-person professional development sessions on a wide variety of topics.
This session was for anyone interested in launching a research or creative-work webinar series. We covered how to define your niche, set yourself up for long-term success, and ensure each webinar runs smoothly. Attendees left with a clear sense of what’s required before, during, and after “Webinar Day,” plus detailed notes to guide their planning.
Storytelling Templates
These Word templates help department communicators - and those with communications as their “other duties as assigned - create news feed stories, newsletter articles and website content, whether that's by posting a completed Q&A directly, using a template to write a story, or asking someone the Q&A questions in a social media video.
ASC Marketing and Communications Workshop: Storytelling
Arts and Sciences Marketing and Communications Workshops bring together communicators across the college for virtual and in-person professional development sessions on a wide variety of topics.
Event Promotion Toolkit
This toolkit was developed for Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences to help departments and other units promote their events to the university community and beyond. My team did not have capacity to do this for every event where support was requested, so this was an excellent middle ground solution for communications staff who often juggled a variety of duties.
(Buck)Eyes on the Sky: Total solar eclipse places worldwide focus on astronomy
On April 8, 2024, millions of people across the United States shared an experience that only comes to this part of the world every few decades: a total solar eclipse. From large watch parties at national parks to small get-togethers in private backyards, humans in the path of totality took a break from regular life to watch the moon cover the sun and turn day into dusk. After such an experience, you may well wonder: what else is going on in the sky?
Artventurous Ambitions: Ohio State’s focus on the arts brings new opportunities to Columbus
It’s hard not to feel inspired by the arts at Ohio State. Reflected in old and new spaces all around the Oval are signs of an enduring legacy — creativity interlinking more than a century of inspiration, innovation and imagination. With two new facilities in the heart of the Columbus campus, a vice provost for the arts, and a new artist laureate, the arts at Ohio State are writing a new chapter in their great story with a focus on elevating community engagement.
A for Effort: Professor Emeritus Pierre Agostini wins 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics
“I wanted to do math and they completely discouraged me, saying that’s too difficult, I would never make it. Alright, so I took physics, which was closest to mind.”
That’s not something you would expect to hear from the 2023 Nobel Prize winner in physics, but for Professor Emeritus Pierre Agostini, it was the start of a long career that culminated in one of science’s highest honors last year.
ASCENT Magazine 2024
ASCENT is intended to showcase the wide range of impactful work that goes on in Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences, from preparing students for successful careers to bringing astronomy outreach to our local community.
Pride Local 2024
Happy Pride, fam! Be safe, take care of each other, and remember: there’s no acceptable level of queer to the haters, so you might as well live your best life.
Preferably by supporting every local Pride festival you can find. Here’s a selection of central Ohio locations to get you started.
AppSciComm Storytelling Series: Beyond the News Release
PIOs are often tasked with finding ways to highlight their institution's expertise. This session is aimed at discussing ways to do this that don't rely on traditional news releases. We'll talk about both formats for highlighting expertise and how to generate story ideas. (Hint: it's helpful if you know some curious kids!)
Recruitment Postcards
These postcards connected admitted students to Ohio State College of Arts and Sciences stories that were relevant to their intended majors. I selected those stories from our recent content calendar - two per college division - and wrote copy for postcard and email outreach to those students.
Ohio State to launch quantum MS/PhD program with funding from the National Science Foundation
An interdisciplinary team at The Ohio State University has received $3M from the National Science Foundation to support the launch of a new graduate program in quantum information science and engineering (QISE). Faculty leaders from the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering are involved in the program, which is one of a few in the U.S. that is not housed in a single academic department.
Arts and Sciences graduate students named 2023 Pelotonia Scholars
Two graduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences have been awarded 2023 Pelotonia Graduate Scholarships, a two-year research award that supports graduate students who focus on cancer research in programs ranging from molecular genetics to psychology.
Story Content Tracker
The College of Arts and Sciences produces A LOT of stories, and it can be difficult to keep track of them all for purposes of reuse, themed story round-ups, or trending social media tags. I created the Story Content Tracker as a way to collect stories we’re likely to reuse, filter them by a wide range of categories, and make it easy for other staff members to quickly see how a story could fit into what they’re working on.
Research Webinar Series 101
Research Webinar Series 101 is intended as a complete primer for research communicators considering hosting their own research webinar series for the public. The 20-minute presentation covers how to find a niche for your series, how to set up your series for success, and how to run each webinar as smoothly as possible.
Drawn from more than a decade of experience in running public webinar series on climate change impacts, funded research and community outreach, this presentation and accompanying notes will do much of the work involved in starting a webinar series for you, so you can focus on what’s important: letting your audience know about your most impactful research projects.
Storytelling and Content Writing
Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences Web Services team invited us to talk about storytelling and how it can improve the quality of your content as part of a monthly lunch and learn series.
Freshwater Science: The Value of Lake Erie Beaches
Beach visits play an important role in Ohio’s $15 billion tourism industry, but water quality issues like harmful algal blooms and E. coli outbreaks can negatively affect beachgoers and discourage them from returning to a favorite spot. The economic impact of these water quality issues is not well understood yet, but estimates of this reduced economic welfare from 2019 are as high as $5.8 million.
Dr. Brent Sohngen at The Ohio State University is working on determining the value of Lake Erie beaches to the state’s overall economy, and how that value is affected when water quality issues like harmful algal blooms occur.