Fall 2019

In the fall of 2019, one of the key courses for my senior project is, “Organizational Storytelling.” It is a management course in which we are taught to interpret data and convey it in a way that is memorable and therefore successful through the usage of storytelling. This course offers me the ability to select an audience, research that audience, and give a presentation that is compelling to them specifically. For my project, I will be presenting design boards to an audience; the work and practice I will have completed in MGMT 201 provides me with skills of constructing and applying ways of presenting my ideas so as they will resonate with my audience.

I plan to meet with my advisor biweekly for semester 1. This will increase in semester 2 but because I am not enrolled in IS 391 for the fall my research won’t require as much supervision as it will in semester 2. If I find that I need more assistance or guidance, I will discuss modifying my meeting plan to fit the needs of my project.

Spring 2020

February – I plan to have a completed compilation of St. Olaf demographics for the current students. Once I have this information organized, I will start my research on successful campus cultures and communal spaces along with gathering their attributes through the use of my proposed survey.
- I will be gathering information from my research librarian and other faculty members who have experience composing successful surveys.
March – I plan to be through most of my research at this point; this includes finding out what features of successful communal spaces trigger positive psychological responses and if that differs cross culturally. I want to have information aligning with respectfulness to different beliefs and viewpoints and so I plan to collect data on what people in different groups. I will begin tabling for my survey and possibly passing them out through different courses and disciplines as well. My research document will be in the early assembly phase here.
April – I plan to finish my research document and make my conclusions regarding my plan to transform Steensland library into a successful and hospitable place for all of the students at St. Olaf. I will also begin to create my design boards based upon my findings in the document. My boards will be completed by the end of this month.
May – My project will be completed by May 1^st, both the document and the design boards.

I plan to meet with my advisor on a weekly basis to discuss the direction of my project and receive critical feedback so that I may improve my future work. I will also be planning on meeting with my research librarian on a biweekly basis to get assistance with all of the disciplines I will be exploring. I will have to make weekly meetings once I get closer to concluding my document so that she may help me with summing my arguments from the research that I have done.

I will be submitting a research document as my final project but I also plan to present multiple design boards as to which configurations of Steensland library I conclude to be the most successful for our students. In April, I will present my boards in Buntrock Commons so that my audience is the students of the campus; this way I will be able to connect with my peers and also get personal feedback as to whether my research is inclusive and relatable.

For my May presentation, I will be inviting an audience to come and experience my findings. I want to get feedback from the viewers and I also want to discuss my preliminary findings before the project is complete. I plan to have a secondary survey composed to give to the audience of this presentation. This survey will distinguish between students and non-students so that I may pull more information from a wider subject pool before completing the project.

My advisor will be able to submit my research paper and also submit photos of the design boards. I will be evaluated on how well my designs fit the responses from the surveys along with the research. My knowledge and usage of general aesthetic principles will also be evaluated.