Insert John Bachelder Reference here

Elevator speeches are a problem for me, because when I get passionate I just start talking really fast and can go on and on until someone finally tells me to shut up. This makes elevator speeches problematic since they need to get the point across in around a minute. To fit all of my research and all of this program into a minute or less is an art form that I have not quite perfected yet, but well on my way to working on it.

I suppose it would start with a greeting like “Hi, my name is Julia Wall.” And maybe if the person I was talking to did not know me “I am a sophomore at Gettysburg College.” And maybe, if I had time, I would say my major and minor. But I think that’s getting a bit ahead of myself.

“Hi my name is Julia Wall, I am a history major, Civil War Era Studies minor at Gettysburg college. This summer I have been working in my college’s library on a digital humanities project, basically a more interactive digital form of humanities. My project is about the West Point Class of June 1861 and their involvement in the Civil War. I am basing my research off of a yearbook of one of the cadets in Special Collections and researching what happened to each cadet based on West Point cadet registers, the War of Rebellion Records, and the cadet’s annotations in the yearbook. I have an interactive timeline for each cadet and an interactive map that shows where each cadet went during the course of the Civil War. My project is all about the relationships that all these cadets formed at West Point, I am visualizing their journey and their lives.

Well since I am very proud of my project I would want to and am going to share it with everyone. Basically for months after this project and when everyone asks me about how my summer was and how I spent my summer I will go into my elevator speech and try to convey the importance of my project and of Digital Humanities/Scholarship. I have already practiced my elevator speech many times over, not just in the library or to school faculty, but just to people in town. I love these cadets and I am so passionate about this project that I don’t think I could shut up about it.

An audience that would probably be interested in my project and research would be the Civil War community. People that I would talk to from the Civil War community would probably have more interest and more questions about my research and findings so I would probably get more time to talk about what I have done. I would also probably personalize it and relate it to John Bachelder’s history of the battle of Gettysburg. Because it was basically just a compilation of reports right now, my next step in the project is to personalize it and make conclusions, but for now it is what it is and I will try to keep it at 2 minutes or less.

-Julia

 

How to Be Interesting in 30 Seconds or Less

Last week, we discussed “elevator speeches”, which contain introductions to a person’s project and appeals for people to be involved–all in 30 seconds or less. The goal is that the information contained in the speech is compelling and clear so that the listener is intrigued and not confused.

The sample speech that I’ll write below is meant for a student or alumni audience. As I’ve continued to do work on my project, I’ve realized that I will need to appeal to current students and alums to build on the research I’ve done this summer.  Without further ado, here is one version of my elevator speech.

“Hey guys, my name is Lauren White, and I have been researching and learning about digital tools this summer as a Digital Scholarship Summer Fellow in Musselman Library. Based on what I’ve learned about digital scholarship, I have created an interactive website using Scalar and Timeline JS. By using these kinds of digital tools, we can make the humanities more public facing and inviting.

Specifically, my project places instances of social justice at Gettysburg from 1980-1990 on a digital timeline. I hope to expand the date range in the coming school year. Many of you have supported my involvement in this project, thank you so much for doing so! I’d love to collect more stories to build on my project. In order for this to happen, I hope you’ll share your experiences and tell others about the timeline. By doing this, we can document and encourage student activism at the college.

I know that this is a lot of information. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

The Elevator Speech…Your 30 Second Commercial

Hello. My name is Keira Koch and I am a student at Gettysburg College. I have been researching women’s experience at Gettysburg College during the 1950s and learning about digital humanities during the summer as a Digital Scholarship Summer Fellow in Musselman Library. Based on what I’ve learned about digital humanities, I have been able to create a website by using the digital tool Scalar, to tell the narrative of women during the 1950s by looking at their academic, social, and personal lives at Gettysburg College. By using digital tools, we can create digital projects that can display research in an interactive way that a paper cannot. Specifically, my project pertained to Gettysburg College women of the 1950s. Now that I’ve done this part, my next step is to expand upon my research by looking at women from other time periods at the college. You have been a supporter of undergraduate research, and I thank you for your continuous support. I would like to show other undergraduate students how to use digital tools for their research. In order to this, I hope you will consider introducing digital humanities to your students. If we are able to move forward, I expect to see an increase in the number of the students who are interested in research and an increase in the number of students who are interested in using digital tools. I know that’s a lot of information. I hope we will be able to meet again soon.

To be completely honest, I had no idea what an elevator speech was until our workshop. Now, since I know what an elevator speech is, I realize how important they are. An elevator speech is an introduction to you and who you are and what you are for, a first impression. I think it is safe to compare an elevator speech to and advertisement or commercial. You say all that you can and need to say about yourself in 30 seconds but it is up to the person or audience that you are speaking to, to decide whether they are interested or not interested. These people who you are talking to can range from being a friend to a very important donor.

Because you may be talking to different types of people, the meaning of your elevator speech might change. If I were talking to a friend, my elevator speech would be much more relaxed and informal. My elevator speech would most likely be trying to convince her/him or apply for the Digital Summer Scholarship Fellowship or to simply tell them what I did this summer. My elevator speech to a very important donor would be very professional and probably encouraging them to continue donating money to digital humanities. My elevator speech to students in a class would be still formal but possibly more personable. The message of my elevator speech would be to introduce them to digital humanities or convince them to use digital tools for their research.

The elevator speech above is aimed at professors. My goal is to tell them about my research and my work with digital tools, as well as convince them to use digital tools in their classrooms and introduce digital humanities to their students. Although this speech was written for a hypothetical situation, there is a strong possibility that I will deliver this speech to professors or people I meet at Bucknell. With some tweaking and drafting, I can say I am ready to deliver my elevator speech.

Almost there… or am I?

The scholars and I have been working increasingly hard over the past week. There have been many days spent on the second floor of the library working and many nights spent in Glatfelter Hall….working. From uploading images to writing metadata, we all agree that we have a lot of work still to do on our projects. It can sometimes feel overwhelming, the more I think about what I have to do in order to finish my project. But will the project that I present this summer be the final project? Most likely not. And I think almost all of the fellows believe that our projects to not end with the summer. We all have ideas of expanding our projects and furthering our research.

My meeting with the working group this past week has helped me see what I can and cannot accomplish this summer. I believe that I can accomplish what I set out to do, build a digital project that shows women’s experience during the 1950s at Gettysburg College. But there is no limit to how in-depth I go with my research. Right now, I know how deep I want to go into my research. But there are a plethora of other statistics, topics, and women I can research as well. The beauty about researching a topic of your choosing is that there are no boundaries to how far you want to go with it.

In the workshops and sessions, we talk a lot about the direction of our projects and what is the ending going to be for them. I believe that what I have and am going to accomplish this summer is not the end of my project but just the foundation and beginning.

Black Lives Matter

The fact that I am once again addressing an act of systemic violence in this blog makes me furious.

Before I begin to address the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile, I would like to acknowledge that my identity as a white woman distances me from these tragedies. My feelings and reactions are undeniably different than those of people of color–I do not feel that I am under threat because of the color of my skin. However, the multiple acts of violence warrant productive discussion and action, regardless of race.

In wake of the two shootings, many people, myself included,  took to social media to express their thoughts and feelings. On the one hand, it was affirming to see so many people reacting to the injustices the two men faced with anger and sadness. However, I realized that for a majority of the people who posted, their response would stop with the hashtag; that is, they would express condolences and frustration in words, but not act to change the systems that necessitated the hashtags.

College students not only have the opportunity but also the responsibility to take action and affect change. Hashtags, prayers, and condolences are not trends–they are motivators. I sincerely urge every person who reads this to find out what they can do to alter the systemic racism evidenced by these two shootings and make a more just world. It is within our power to do so.