by Sarah Paterson
Elon University’s Center for Undergraduate Publishing and Information Design (CUPID) has been an integral part of the university’s English department for the last twelve years and primarily serves students in Elon’s Professional Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) concentration. CUPID is intended to teach students real-world skills while providing them with the resources to practice in a classroom setting. In the CUPID computer lab, students have access to desktop publishing software, as well as video and audio recording equipment. The desks are organized in pods to foster an environment of collaboration.
Each semester, three Professional Writing students are chosen to be CUPID Associates. The associates, picked based on their breadth of courses in the PWR concentration and work outside of the classroom, organize workshops for the wider campus community and assist students with technological resources available through the CUPID lab. Recent workshops have taught students how to create a personal logo, how to use the website Digication to perfect their portfolios, and how to use hidden tools in Microsoft Word.
Students can become CUPID Associates only after they have taken the CUPID Studio course, which is a graduation requirement for students completing the PWR major. The PWR curriculum intends to bridge traditional liberal arts study with real-world application, and the CUPID course is one way PWR helps students stretch their knowledge and skills in a professional context.
The CUPID Studio course begins with lessons about how to brand one’s self, tailor a resume, and start developing a portfolio. Rachel Lewis, a PWR student who works as a CUPID Associate, appreciated the opportunity CUPID Studio gave her to develop her professional identity: “It went beyond defining rhetoric and professional writing to applying those concepts to our identities. I ended the course with the ability to explain myself as a student, put experiences behind my skills, and a solid start to a resume.”
After spending time developing students’ professional identities, the CUPID course integrates client work to give students a hands-on opportunity to work in a professional environment. CUPID Studio, like many courses in Elon’s PWR concentration, focuses on service learning. The class often partners with local non-profits and university programs to create promotional materials, plan social media campaigns, and update existing organization documents. This semester, CUPID students are creating advertising materials for the university Writing Center and the Multimedia Authoring minor, writing a new edition of the English department’s newsletter The Back Page, and updating the website for Elon’s Professional Writing Studies minor. Past service learning partners include The Conservators’ Center, which rescues threatened animal species, and Family Abuse Services, a non-profit that works for domestic violence prevention in Alamance County. Through these projects, students of the CUPID course get practice writing and editing copy, using design software, communicating professionally with clients, and developing marketing strategies.
Dannie Cooper, a junior English major and current CUPID associate, valued the chance to work with clients in a real-world situation. “CUPID Studio taught me that working with clients challenges you to approach projects in a new way,” she says. “Our client was very set on the format of one document and it required my group to change the way in which we used the CUPID technologies in order to reach this goal. It was a rewarding experience to go through and I learned how to approach projects creatively and be open to new ideas.”
CUPID also runs a collaborative blog to show the Elon community what’s going on writing-wise on campus. The three associates are regular contributors to and maintainers of the blog, but all students taking a CUPID course are expected to write posts about their experiences working on client projects and other class activities. Previous blog topics have included undergraduate research projects, visual rhetoric, and tips for resume design.
Sarah Paterson is an English major at Elon University with a concentration in Professional Writing and Rhetoric. She is completing an undergraduate thesis about multicultural rhetoric in adolescent slam poetry.