The COVID-19 pandemic changed how people live and work together. After President Geoffrey Mearns from Ball State University announced his decision to move to remote learning and working, the Digital Corps quickly established a plan to work remotely for the remainder of its Spring 2020 semester and into the future. Students at the Corps carried on in their classes and in their work, but the challenge to be creative in new ways started to grow. Student creativity never faded, but the ways in which it is expressed changed dramatically.
To address this concern, Digital Corps Graduate Assistant, Jacob Guenin, determined that students needed a way to showcase their creativity in the face of the pandemic. His idea was to inspire other employees to create a series of diaries to track their creative progress while in quarantine. These became known as the Digital Corps-antine Diaries.
Moving forward into the Summer, Video Team member and Junior Project Manager, Lexi Esterle, has taken over the project and created new opportunities for students to showcase their creativity.
“The purpose of the project,” Esterle said, “is to get everyone to create some type of deliverable that represents their time during quarantine.” Digital Corps students from various teams have started to create something that not only brings them joy, but showcases the learning process.
This summer, the project has grown to be more collaborative. “It has transformed into a group of people creating their own personal projects, coming together, and discussing how these personal projects impact them during quarantine,” said Esterle.
In the past, project updates were shared individually, and progress wasn’t made known to every student participating. This summer, Digital Corps students participate in regular video conference updates to discuss and celebrate progress. These meetings are recorded and shared for others to watch and take inspiration from.
As the project is still in its infancy for the summer, Esterle and the other students involved are excited about the potential outcomes.
“What I’m most looking forward to is seeing what everyone comes up with.” Esterle said. “As the Junior Project Manager, I get to talk to people and hear their ideas and see what they come up with over time. I’m in a unique position where I see the beginning of everyone’s creativity.”
Moving forward, Esterle and other students involved are excited to come together as a group and discuss their projects. Their hope is that by focusing a little bit of time each week on a personal creative project, they will showcase the passion and creativity of Digital Corps students while encouraging the pursuit of personal creative projects, despite the quarantine. Through this creative practice, Digital Corps students will experiment with new techniques and will perfect their digital skills, which can be applied to work for campus partners in the future.
To learn more about Digital Corps-antine Diaries and the Digital Corps, follow us on social media and visit our website at digitalcorps.bsu.edu.
