A new way for students to learn about digital media at the ELI

At the English Language Institute, we know more than anyone how important it is to stay globally connected. Social media allows us to keep in touch with current students and UD’s campus community as well as alumni, families, agents, and partners around the world. Our content has always been authentic, but in the last year, we’ve also been striving to make it more personal and engaging. What better way to do this than with the help of the students themselves?

In turn, students benefit by learning about the digital landscape; by partnering with the ELI’s Communications Specialist, they get to strategize social media content ideas, help develop a content calendar, and use their own artistic passions to create the content.

For Hikmatullah Kharoti, an Artist Protection Fund Fellow in residence at the University of Delaware and The Delaware Contemporary museum who hails from Afghanistan, his passion was photography and videography. Him and Al Monther Al Amri, an aspiring mechanical engineering student from Oman in the ELI’s Academic Transitions program, took the plunge in February, becoming the ELI’s first Social Media Ambassador students. 

Not long after, they were joined by Tong Li, a former journalist in China and recent graduate of the ELI’s Graduate Conditional Admissions Program. 

The students found success right away with their first social media reel: “A Day in the Life at the ELI.” The video follows Kharoti and Al Amri through a typical day on campus, going to classes, clubs, the UD gym and more. It was a hit with viewers all around the world; in just a few days, it reached the highest engagement rate of all reels posted on the ELI’s social media platforms in terms of likes, shares, and comments. The students developed the concept in collaboration with the ELI’s Communications Specialist, then executed the planning, filming, and editing on their own.

The magnum opus of their time as Social Media Ambassadors, however, was their final video project: “We’re in international education, of course we…” The students enlisted members of the ELI’s faculty and staff to share what quirky qualities demonstrate that we serve the international education community. Even the ELI’s new director, Cheryl Ernst, got involved in part 2!

Shooting the project operated like a real film set; the students used professional film equipment and took on crew roles such as Director of Photography, Gaffer, and Sound Mixer.

While the new Social Media Ambassador role has certainly helped the ELI generate more engaging content, the real reward has been seeing the students learn to use their creative talents in the ever-evolving world of digital media and communications.

Article by Kaitlyn Diehl

July 24, 2024