Joey J. Pangilinan
Joey J. Pangilinan

True Life: Grad Life.

How Did We Get Here?

In the Spring 2022 semester, I was enrolled in MAPC’s Digital Storytelling course. One of the bigger projects toward the end of the semester, one in which we work with a group to produce a podcast episode, and treat it as if this was one episode as part of an ongoing series. The intention was to produce a show akin to the likes of This American Life, Snap Judgement, and Decoder Ring. The hallmark of these podcasts series is to investigate or chronicle a story. Sometimes it’s a quirky little slice of life story, or recalls some pop-culture artifact of yesteryear, or anything really. Often, there is at least one or two interview subjects, and some analysis sprinkled throughout.

For Frank Espinoza, Julia Zelle, and Evan Harris, and myself, the theme that we came up for our podcast was something that already binded us: the graduate school experience. As for the interview subject for the specific episode we had to produce, we interviewed my cousin, Michelle Pangilinan. I don’t want to give away much more, but it was an enlightening experience to interview my cousin, to tell her story, and proud to have helped produce a great podcast alongside a talented cohort.

 
 

Comics and Technical Communication

What was my first big MAPC final assignment, was also one of my favorite assignments, as I was able to connect one of my greatest passions—comic books and the comics medium, and technical communication. It certainly wouldn’t be the last time I would do this during my MAPC tenure, but this particular case study final report for my Technical Communication course holds a dear place in my heart.

Below is the abstract that I had written, along with a link to read the tome in full. Further down are the presentation slides that I created to compliment this case study.

Abstract:

This case study examines the comics medium as it relates to technical communication. It studies the commonality between the creation of instructional directions that adapt sequential storytelling applications, and likewise explores how the comics medium derives inspiration from technical communication applications. By examining symbolic analytic theory as expanded upon by Johndan Johnson-Eilola and analyzing it alongside several pages of comics published by Marvel Entertainment and pages of technical documents selected from an instructional booklet for a television stand/shelving unit made by IKEA, it concludes by proposing the use of comics as a form of technical communication.

Keywords: comics, technical communication, symbolic-analytic theory


 
 

 

Social Media Campaigns

Digital Storytelling

Plant Lush & “Homie the Gnomie”

There were two major strategic social media campaigns that I produced as part of my coursework in the MAPC program at USF. The first was a solo project for my Digital Storytelling course in the Spring 2022 semester, and the second was as a group project from the Health Communication course that I took a year later in the the Spring 2023 semester.

In the case of the former, the objective was to take the Instagram account of an existing product or services brand with few followers, and produce a series of social posts that would engage audiences and help tell the story of the brand. The brand that I chose was a small business plant shop located in Downtown San Jose called Plant Lush. What attracted me to the brand was its mom-and-pop / neighborhood shop vibe, and eccentric voice and aesthetic that the shop’s exiting Instagram graphics and images already evoked.

In the infant stages of the assignment, a classmate suggested I use a mascot, and to help infuse some character into this brand I had chosen. Off the cuff, he blurted out the name, “Homie the Gnomie.” I thought it was a good suggestion, and from there, I built my brand’s story around the calls to actions that the mascot was invoking. Some of the images and graphics were part of an Instagram carousel post. Below you will find my presentation slides that are meant to represent what the Instagram posts would look like on a desktop computer.

 
 

Health Communication

Sound Mind; Sound Body

The objective for the group project in my Health Communication course was to develop a public health campaign addressing an important health issue in the San Francisco area. The campaign material could include print, webpages, video, education, or other creative forms. In this assignment, we had to make our target audience aware of a specific health issue and persuade them about the importance of recommended health behaviors.

My three group-mates and I decided to converge our interests in mental health, physical wellness, and nutritional wellness into one combined campaign. Our target audience was aimed at 14-24 year-olds, with the intended message to advocate better nutritional and physical wellness can lead to sustained, or even improved, mental health. What’s more, in targeting these communiques to young adults, and advocating for them to make healthier lifestyle choices was also to advise them on how these choices could impact their chances of avoiding or suffering from chronic illnesses as they get older.

Presented below are is the slide deck that my partners and I had created for our presentation. My contribution to the project and the presentation was focused mostly on the nutritional wellness aspect, with mockups of what the nutritional posts would look like.

I decided to focus particularly on the positives and negatives of coffee and caffeine consumption.

 
 
 

Social Media & Digital Marketing Internship

After initially enrolling in the University of San Francisco’s Professional Communication MA program in the Fall of 2021, I eventually accepted my a social media and digital marketing internship with Everscale Agency in the fall of 2022. A digital marketing agency, the majority of Everscale’s clientele are brands specializing in healthy drink and food snacks. A few of my responsibilities included managing social media accounts of up to as many as four of the firm’s clients daily. Often, I would respond to comments and direct messages, as well as repost tagged posts. In addition, I actively participated in research and strategy of client content creation ranging from blog posts to crowdfunding campaigns. Below are several links to blog posts that I had written on behalf of Everscale’s clients.

Vitalyte

Vitalyte is a scientifically formulated sport's nutrition drink was developed to be a healthy alternative to the high-sugar high-sodium sports drinks that were on the market. It is the world's first authentic isotonic sports beverage. With my supervisor at Everscale, I had researched and written a blog article on the topic regarding how football players stay hydrated.

The Maca Team

The Maca Team is a family run company comprised of maca enthusiast who are passionate about providing the highest quality maca products. The organization touts its products to be organically grown, fairly traded, non-gmo, gluten free, fresh and potent. A few of my writing tasks for The Maca Team included recipes for maca pumpkin bread and mini chocolate maca cake, as well as a profile of its newest powder product: maca blue.

Ovation Foods

Ovation Foods are makers of assorted protein chicken sticks, with each stick packing as much as 20g of protein per serving. A great post-workout snack, each serving also boasts only 1g of carbs and 0g of sugar. I researched and contributed writing to an article on the importance of the nutrient choline.

 
 
 
 

Taali

During my internship, I also took on the task of a product photography shoot for Taali. A superfood made for super snacking, the Taali brand specializes in plant based snacks made from popped water lily seeds (Makhana).

 
 
 

Urthbox

Urthbox provides a subscription service where the brand sends out a box filled with an assortment of healthy snacks and drinks every month. As part of the interview process with Everscale, I created a campaign pitch for a new edition for one of the firm’s clients, Urthbox. I also created a buyer persona for the client to show who I thought might represent a segment of customers or prospective customers who would be interested in the services that Urthbox provides. Below is the campaign pitch and buyer persona:

 
 
 

Educational Programing Internship

In the Spring 2023 semester, I worked part-time with the educational non-profit organization 826 Valencia as an educational programing intern. Originally founded in San Francisco, CA in the heart of the city’s Mission District, the non-profit has expanded its reach nationwide, including two more mission centers in the Tenderloin and Mission Bay neighborhoods.

I devoted 10-12 hours a week with the Mission Bay staff visiting partner schools Bret Harte Elementary and Malcolm X Academy in the city’s Bayview neighborhood, tutoring 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students.

As part of 826 Valencia’s curriculum and schedule, the organization publishes the works of its students at the conclusion of every school year. However, because of the necessary lead time it takes to edit, proof, and print the books in time in May of each year, the selected works of the students are often taken from November or December. So I did not get to work with the students of Bart Harte and Malcolm X on their writing prompts that would eventually be their published works, but I did get to work with many of those students as they continued into the Spring semester.

I did get to contribute to the post-production process in the form of administrative support and copyediting. Below, you can find the covers to “I Wish I Could Touch My Heart,” by the students of Bret Harte Elementary, and “I Will Be a Fisherman and Go To Space,” by the students of Malcolm X Academy.

 
 
 

The Tenderloin’s mission center is the location of the organization’s podcasts studios. Building off my experience producing the True Life: Grad Life podcast in my Digital Storytelling course, I wanted to explore how 826 Valencia works with students to produce the organization’s “Message In A Bottle” podcasts.

I also had the opportunity to work with the Tenderloin’s staff on one occasion, having provided additional support for a field trip session with Alpha Middle School, visiting from Oakland, CA. These tutoring sessions are similar to my experiences working with the students of Bret Harte and Malcom X in that I support them beginning with the ideation phase of a prompt, then an initial draft, making sure to include sensory details, and then a final draft before proofing the work.

The regular 826 Tenderloin staff also prepares the students in how to vocally perform their stories, as well. Below you can find the embedded playlist of 826 Valencia’s “Message In A Bottle” podcasts episodes featuring Alpha Middle School.