The Story
Behind the Public Relations Campaign
Students were commissioned to develop materials for the School
to Career Office of the Board of Education that would reflect
the mission of the office. The commission was two-pronged. First,
the students were asked to develop an overall public relations
campaign for the School to Career office and second, they had
to encompass and identify each of the subprograms.
The students who were asked to accept this commission were chosen
from a simulated advertising agency in one of New York City’s
high schools. The corporate partner of this program assigned a
staff member to serve as a mentor to the students.
A proposal was submitted to the commissioners within the School
to Career office. The proposal included a timeline and schedule
of deadlines and presentation dates for the benefit of the commissioners
of the project. Students met with each member of the School to
Career team to determine the activities, goals, and mission of
the School to Career office and each of its subprograms. The project
resulted in a public relations campaign which included a brochure,
logo designs, stationery, and business cards.
The written work produced as part of Applied Learning projects
commonly contains some errors. Documentation of these projects
includes notes, journal entries and plans that students produced
as working documents for their personal use. These kinds of documents
were not prepared with the expectation of eventual publication
and they have not been revised for inclusion in this book.
It is expected that finished work produced as part of an Applied
Learning project will contain virtually error free writing.
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What the work shows
 c
Tools and Techniques for Working With Others: The student completes
a task in response to a commission from a client; that is, the student:
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negotiates with the client to arrive at a plan
for meeting the client’s needs that is acceptable to the
client, achievable within available resources, and includes
agreed-upon criteria for successful completion; |
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monitors client satisfaction with the work in
progress and makes adjustments accordingly; |
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evaluates the result in terms of the negotiated
plan and the client’s evaluation of the result. |
 The students accepted
a commission from the School to Career office to produce public
relations materials.
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 a
Learning and Self-management Tools and Techniques: The student
learns from models; that is, the student:
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consults with and observes other students and
adults at work and analyzes their roles to determine the critical
demands, such as demands for knowledge and skills, judgment
and decision making; |
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identifies models for the results of project work,
such as professionally produced publications, and analyzes their
qualities; |
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uses what he or she learns from models in planning
and conducting project activities. |
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Included here are some of the models the students used to help them
design the logo. They picked a variety of famous, easily recognized
logos to begin thinking about what theirs should look like.
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 They analyzed the
labels and came up with this list of “Logo Objectives.”
 a
Information Tools and Techniques: The student gathers information
to assist in completing project work; that is, the student:
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identifies potential sources of information to
assist in completing the project; |
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uses appropriate techniques to collect the information,
e.g., considers sampling issues in conducting a survey; |
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interprets and analyzes the information; |
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evaluates the information in terms of completeness,
relevance, and validity; |
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shows evidence of research in the completed project. |
 
These are extracts from the students’ preparatory notes of objects
they could use to symbolize both school and work and the notes that
brought them closer to the final design for the logo. In the notes
on this page, the language of the “Logo Objectives” is easily
recognizable, e.g., “Should imply a constant state of learning,
opened to new ideas and experiences,” can be seen in “Journey
into knowledge… shows no end point.” |
| The ideas reflect the students’ research of the
concept of semiotics. |
c
Information Tools and Techniques: The student uses word-processing
software to produce a multi-page document; that is, the student:
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uses features of the software to create and edit
the document; |
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uses features of the software to format the document,
including a table of content, index, tabular columns, charts,
and graphics; |
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uses features of the software to create templates
and style sheets for the document. |
 
 
 
 
 
The students made a presentation of their design ideas for the logo
to their client, combining text and visual representations. These
are extracts from their presentation. At this stage of the project,
the students had two central design ideas to offer as options: the
arch concept and the briefcase concept.
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 This
memorandum documents the feedback the students received from their
presentation. This feedback was incorporated into the final design
of the logo.
 The students designed
and created a variety of print documents using word-processing software.
Included here are draft designs of the business cards. The students
experimented with a variety of fonts, sizes, and styles to assess
their relative affect and to decide which features of the software
program worked best to achieve their purpose. The students also kept
a meticulous record of the fonts, sizes, etc., they used for each
of the cards so that they could easily retrace their steps once they
made a decision about which combination worked most effectively.
The students imported the graphic they designed to use as a logo for
the program and tested a variety of sizes and placements. |
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