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Roberto Smith Portfolio

Contents Resume

Creative Communications Samples

Writing Sample

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Resume

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Web:

R O B E R T O S M I T H Email: [email protected] WWW.NETFILES.UIUC.EDU/RASMITH6/WWW/WEB410/INDEX.HTM

Education: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Graduation date: Major-Advertising Belleville Township High School East High School Diploma

Urbana-Champaign,IL May 2009 Belleville, Illinois

Relevant Courses: Microeconomic Principles Intro to Psychology Intro to Sociology Introduction to Advertising Media, Money, & Power Statistics Macroeconomic Principles Intro to Social Psych History of Comm. Popular Culture Social Cognition English Composition ADV Classic Campaign Public Relations Research Methods Marketing Work Experience: Portrait Innovations (September 2008-present) Photograph adults and children of all ages Study my potential buyer and determine what kind of pictures to sale them Lowe’s (May 2008-August 2008) Assisted loading customer’s cars with the purchased home improvement materials University of Illinois Beckwith Dorm (September 2007-present) Meal Assistant to the handicap with eating Personal Assistant with hygienical maintenance and everyday routines with handicap Door Monitor to the residence hall AT&T (June 2007-August 2007) Demonstrated the functionality of the Iphone Promoted and marketed the Iphone Learned to qualify and engage customers University of Illinois Engineering Internship (June 2005-August 2005) Conducted studies of electrical engineering and circuitry Developed engineering programs utilizing Java Formally presented accumulated knowledge in power point form Target (June 2004-June 2005) Executed cashier responsibilities Exhibited company policy in resolving customer inquiries at guest service Precise with customer orders at food court As a cart attendant performed janitorial duties Worked collaboratively and cooperatively with co-workers and customers Displayed excellent interpersonal skills Skills: Graphic Design: Photoshop; Microsoft Publisher; Research: Lexis Nexis; SPSS. Video & Web: Designed my own website: www.netfiles.uiuc.edu/rasmith6/www/web410/indexhtm Professional Organizations: Spanish Honors Society, Spanish Club, National Honors Society, Octagon Club, Young Democrats, and National Society of Black Engineers, American Advertising Federation

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Creative Communication Samples

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Radio Ad SFX: Opens car doors and starts car engine. Riley: So I went to the gas station yesterday and I asked for a cup of coffee right? Huey: Yeah that’s right. Riley: He puts this no brand name coffee on the counter. Riley: I looked at him and was like WTF!? This isn’t Starbucks. Huey: How are you supposed to start your day right without some Starbucks? Riley: That’s what I said. Riley: I left and went somewhere else to get some decent coffee. Riley: Starbucks is the only coffee I drink because they make the best gourmet coffee. Riley: Imitation coffee is just too generic. Riley: It doesn’t have the same quality of taste or the same aroma as Starbucks. Huey: Yeah, it’s just not the same. Huey: The competition doesn’t compare to Starbucks. SFX: Turns engine off, Huey and Riley open and close car doors. Announcer: Starbucks gourmet coffee: fresh, sophisticated, and delectable.

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Client: Starbucks The situation: There are a lot of competitive coffee shops in the United States today, but currently Starbucks is the dominant force and we would like to stay that way. Starbucks is the face of the coffee industry. Who is our target? Our target will be all people between the ages of 23-40 who fit under the category of someone who is always on the go and is dependent on coffee to jump start their day. We target this demographic and psychographic because they are more likely to be the type to repeatedly invest in coffee because they are constantly busy, so they subconsciously believe they need a boost to make it through their day. Where are we now in the mind of this person? Consumers across the country believe Starbucks coffee is of high quality and they enjoy the gourmet style, but the issue at hand is the prices of their coffee exceed the competitions. Also, since Starbucks is extremely popular, it presents the problem of ridiculous waiting lines and chaos within the store. Where is our competition in the mind of this person? Our consumers believe our competitors’ coffee is not of the same quality as ours, but they are fairly decent. However, it still competes because their prices are comparable to the level of quality, and the long lines are non existent so the environment is peaceful because it’s not chaotic. Where would we like to be in the mind of this person? We want the consumer to think Starbucks is the best investment of their money for coffee because we have an excellent environment that enables relaxing and accomplishing things. We also want them to think it’s the best coffee period, and the excess money spent on the coffee goes towards the great customer service, extraordinary environment, and a peace of mind. What is the consumer promise, the “big idea”? Need a jump start to your day? Kick it off with Starbucks’ gourmet coffee: fresh, sophisticated , and delectable. What is the supporting evidence? Colombia Nariño Supremo, Guatemala Antiqua, House Blend, House Blend-decaf, LightNote Blend, LightNote Blend-decaf, Organic Shade Grown Mexico, Shade Grown Mexico-decaf, Starbucks Breakfast Blend, Arabian Mocha Sanani, Ethiopia Sidamo, Gazebo Blend, Kenya, Rift Valley Blend, and many more appealing gourmet flavors. What is the tone of voice for the advertising? The tone of voice for the ads are informal, everyday conversation.

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Writing Sample

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Equality-based Education Via Tracking? In today’s educational system, there is a social demand and strive for excellence; but this so called “excellence” comes at a high cost. Has the two and a half century old effort of educational equality taken the back seat to global competition? In the modern era of education, a system called tracking has been established and implemented. In the article “Keeping Track”, tracking is defined as the practice of dividing students into separate classes for highaverage, low-average, and low-achievers (Oakes, p. 263). This system ultimately is designed to guide the students who show the most potential, and they stay on a track intended to give them the best opportunity to excel and achieve excellence. Although debatable, it is typical to see poor or minority students “placed” in the low end of the tracking system making it very improbable to show any promise of upward mobility, or obtaining the proper education for that matter. Minorities have been at war with equality for centuries and have seen very little providence; although Brown vs. Board of Education had great potential, it more or less has been perceived as a broken promise because it never had the effect the public thought it was intended to have, and it has lead to alternative methods that still prevent the proper education of minorities. This decision has unintentionally lead to a regression of the previous progress that was once made. Tracking is one of these alternative methods that has handicapped an overrepresented number of minorities and greatly advocates the continuing struggle for quality and equal education for minorities in the educational system.

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Before tracking existed in desegregated or integrated schools, equality was fought in the realms of segregation. In the pre-Brown vs. Board era, W.E.B. DuBois was a front runner in the argu ment that separate schools for the education of the Negro was a necessity; The Negro needs the proper education and that entails “…sympathetic touch between teacher and pupil; knowledge on the part of the teacher, not simply of the individual taught, but of his surroundings and back ground, and the history of his class and group” (DuBois, p. 328). A familiarity between teacher and pupil must be established in order to form a level of comfort and the development of a relationship. This allows for the teacher and pupil to relate to one another, especially if the teacher has knowledge of the students’ cultures. He advocated segregated schools simply be cause there was no alternative; unless the animosity whites had towards blacks could change, then it was better to have blacks teach blacks than integrate blacks into the white school system. But even this idea presented its own issues. Even today, American Negroes ridicule our own schools; they do not get the communal support that is necessary to receive scholarly accolades. The professors are looked at with disgust as if they do not get approval and fail to sufficiently support any credible movements attempting to obtain academic recognition. DuBois has broken this issue down into two parts: a fear that implies a temporary movement of segregation admits a fatal surrender to defeat in the battle of equality, which will inevitably lead to more evils on the Negroes and the lack of faith in the Negroes competency of doing anything well (DuBois, p. 330). With that being said, this is still thought to be a more desirable position than integration because the negatives of integration outweighed the positives. Parents of colored students have repeatedly endured never-ending pains to impose their children into schools where the

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white children, white teachers, and white parents despise and resent the black student, and making every possible experience a living hell (DuBois, p. 330). “What he must remember is that there is no magic, either in mixed schools or in segregated schools. A mixed school with poor and unsympathetic teachers, with hostile public opinion, and no teaching of truth concerning black folk, is bad. A segregated school with ignorant placeholders, inadequate equipment, poor salaries, and wretched housing, is equally bad. Other things being equal, the mixed school is the broader, more natural basis for education of all youth. It gives wider contacts; it inspires greater selfconfidence; and suppresses the inferiority complex. But other things seldom are equal, and in that case, Sympathy, Knowledge, and the Truth, outweigh all that the mixed school can offer” (DuBois, p. 335). In 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education was considered to be a pivotal point in the fight for equality. The term “separate but equal” was ruled unconstitutional and by law, desegregation was to take place; according to Professor Anderson in the article “A Tale of Two Browns: Constitutional Equality and Unequal Education”, the years passed and they unveiled Brown vs. Board’s direct impact on school desegregation and unequal education was restricted and its limitations are becoming more prevalent (Anderson, p. 16). This had a tremendous effect on the black community; the implementation of the ruling destroyed careers of black educators, many black students were planted into hostile racial environments, and those who had hopes and expectations of full equality had their dreams demolished. Funding became a huge issue for minorities; African Americans were making up a large proportion of the school population but were only receiving a fraction of the funds white students were receiving. Enormous inequalities surfaced in every aspect of public education, especially in the construction and maintenance of school property (Anderson, p. 23). Financial discrimination towards African American schools left an overwhelming number of black students without tax-supported school buildings and left them to fence for themselves through quasi-private elementary and 12

secondary education while their white counter parts reaped the tax supported benefits. Anderson says even some states, like Mississippi, went as far as to close high schools down in order to deny educational opportunities to African American children (Anderson, p. 24). This alone, the unavailability of public high schools, greatly contributed to the inequality of graduation rates. Because these conditions were primarily worse in the South, many African Americans migrated to the North in hopes of finding better jobs, living conditions, and higher quality education, but the racism and inequality followed them. The migration of southern blacks to the North brought a rise to white supremacist perspectives that “dismissed blacks as inferior and unfit for full participation in white civilization” (Anderson, p. 27). Because of the growing racism, it actually lead to a greater number of segregated schools than ever before by 1954. Once blacks achieved access to a K-12 system, the infrastructure this system was built upon was systematically taken apart. A large majority of these historically black public schools were being shut down during the initial stages of desegregation (Anderson, p. 30). When this occurred, black students were forced to assimilate and lost their culture, traditions, and racial identity. This act also ended an entire generation of black educational leadership and tens of thousands of African American teaching careers endedl abruptly (Anderson, p. 30). Not all schools were segregated as far as having black schools and white schools. There were a variety of strategies to divide children by race that did not require separate schools. In the mixed schooling system, state officials placed African American children in separate classrooms and some teachers insisted upon racial separation within the classroom, requiring segregated seating arrangements in racially mixed classrooms. This also included the exclusion of extracurricular activities such as a variety of athletics

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(Anderson, p. 28). This kind of activity only provided an insight of the institutional practices that will later occur. These students were being put in the lowest curricular levels within desegregated schools, which complexes the idea of educational and constitutional equality. The modern form of that is called tracking. The issue with tracking is it places the greatest obstacles to achievement in the path of those children least advantaged in American society (Oakes, p. 262). The characteristics of tracking are problematic but common: the intellectual performance of students is judged, and based on the judgment the students are categorized into particular groups, classes and tracks are designed and labeled as advanced, average, and remedial, the curriculum and instruction is tailored to the perceived needs and abilities of the students assigned, and students in various tracks experience school in vary different ways (Oakes, p. 263). And there lies the problem; the 60% of students that are not in the high track are disadvantaged. Instead of making students feel more comfortable about themselves, it presents self-esteem issues, lower aspirations, and can emerge negative attitudes towards school (Oakes, p. 265). Essentially, tracking widens the gap between abilities instead of accommodating students and trying to narrow it, and this could not be truer for African Americans. Poor and minority students are disproportionately placed in low tracking systems; on the same note, they are drastically underrepresented in talented and gifted programs as well (Oakes, p. 265). The racial discrimination still exists today because parents have to fight for their child to receive fair assessment and treatment and still do not warrant the accurate result. There are differences in placement by race and social class regardless of test scores, counseling, and teacher recommendations (Oakes, p. 265). It’s quite ironic

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the term for this is called tracking because a low-track system keeps the disadvantaged off track of success and future educational opportunities. Because of the disparities between the high tracking system and the low tracking system, low-track students are prevented from ever encountering at school the knowledge our society values most because important concepts and skills are deserted, the opportunity to learn is less because less time is devoted to learning activities, the teachers are not as involved or enthusiastic about class, the students are ridiculed more instead of criticized constructively, and the classroom environment is less concerned about the student and more about “following directions” and “learning to take a direct order” (Oakes, p. 267). This easily relates back to the minority struggle in quality and equality education because the low-track students are usually minorities. These minorities are being discriminated against by not having full access to the rightfully owed proper education they should be receiving. “The obvious conclusion about the effects of these track-specific differences on the ability of the schools to achieve academic excellence is that students who are exposed to less content and lower quality teaching are unlikely to get the full benefit out of their schooling. Yet this less fruitful experience seems to be the norm when average and low achieving students are grouped together for instruction” (Oakes, p. 269).

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