This year has been one of immense growth—not just for my video team and me, but for the Wooster community as a whole. This growth has been evident in so many ways, most recently through our community's incredible support during this year's Giving Woo Days. I had the honor of contributing to the Wooster story through video media, which helped raise $708,615 for the Wooster Fund! That’s more than double last year’s total of $332,325.
While the financial results are impressive, the real impact of Giving Woo Days lies in the opportunities these funds provide for current and future students.
My team was tasked with creating a visual story to show donors how the Wooster Fund makes a direct impact on the world. What better way to accomplish that than by speaking with those most influenced by Wooster—the alumni? With the help of the Advancement team, I started with a list of 20 alumni excelling in their respective fields. We narrowed this list to nine realistic candidates, keeping travel and scheduling in mind. After weeks of planning and countless emails back and forth, we successfully scheduled video interviews with six of the original nine alumni.
From there, I conducted extensive LinkedIn research to craft 15 personalized questions for each alum. These questions spanned their journeys from freshman year at Wooster to where they are now, touching on various diplomas, jobs, and milestones in between. This part of the process is an under-appreciated aspect of video production. As my supervisor, Kathleen Lawry, shared with me in a linkedin post, “Boring questions produce boring answers.”
With pre-production complete, it was time for the interviews, starting with one I foreshadowed in a recent LinkedIn post. For those who missed it, I had the privilege of traveling to Chicago last month to film and interview Wooster alum Ryan Allen ’99 at the Latin School of Chicago, where he serves as Assistant Head of School. This marked my first out-of-state trip for the college, and it couldn’t have been a better experience. Ryan and the Latin School staff were incredibly welcoming and eager to support the production of the best possible final product. Ryan exemplifies the Wooster community's commitment to changing the world, and I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about his journey. (A full video highlight of Ryan will be produced and posted next year.)
The second interview took place just a few hundred feet from my office, with Matt Mariola ’98, a name many Wooster followers will recognize. While I managed Ryan’s production solo (which came with its challenges—lugging over 50 pounds of equipment down Chicago’s city streets!), I had the assistance of my fantastic production interns, Nachi Goto and Seyram Essey, for Matt’s interview.
Dr. Mariola is not only a Wooster graduate but also a vital part of the campus community as an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, a position he has held for the past 15 years. His interview added a necessary sense of familiarity to the overall video. Having grown up in Wooster, graduated from Wooster, and now working at the college, Matt embodies the Wooster spirit, and his authenticity shone throughout our conversation. (A full video highlight of Matt will also be posted next year.)
The third interview, with Bria Price ’14, took a different approach. Initially, we ruled out alumni in distant locations like Washington, D.C., California, and Atlanta due to time constraints. However, I remembered that one of my exceptionally talented former interns, Zion Vital, lives in Atlanta! Zion has worked on multiple Giving Woo Days campaigns, so he immediately understood our needs. After connecting Zion and Bria, I provided them with the interview questions and waited for the video files to arrive via Google Drive. Zion, unsurprisingly, delivered outstanding results, which comprised a significant portion of the main video.
Bria shared her Wooster experience so eloquently that it was challenging to decide which parts of her interview to include. Her words resonate deeply with viewers, and I couldn’t be happier with the final product from both Bria and Zion. Thank you both! (A full video highlight of Bria will be posted later this year.)
Lastly, we completed three more interviews in one weekend, thanks to Wooster’s annual Homecoming! Knowing many alumni would return to campus for the event, we seized the opportunity to meet with Revamp Energy CEO, Jay Cutting ’08, Senior Geologist & Alumni board member, Ali Sloan ’09, and elsmere education coo, Justin Sloan ’05. Each has had an impressive professional journey and holds significant positions in their respective industries. Since we couldn’t film these interviews at their workplaces, we used their conversations as supplemental footage for the main post. Thank you to all three for sharing your journeys with us. (Full videos for each of them will be produced and posted next year.)
While alumni stories are impactful, it’s equally important to hear from those who deeply impact Wooster every day. For the final video in this campaign package, we met with Wooster's President, Dr. Anne McCall, who delivered a heartfelt message to inspire donors to support the Wooster Fund. Her message was the perfect way to tie the entire series together!
