The College of Education is one of the largest of Temple University’s colleges and schools. For the past six years I have written nearly all of the copy for the college’s 36-page Educator magazine, which is distributed to alumni, faculty and other key constituencies to heighten the college’s profile and generate financial support.
Several weeks after the most recent issue was mailed, Valerie Gay, the college’s assistant dean for institutional advancement, received a call from an alumna interested in donating to the college. She had never read a magazine, she explained, whose stories had moved her so much.
Her reaction was shared by a proofreader and graphic designer, both of whom were reduced to tears by the story of Ed Hoffman, an alum who several years ago was the nation’s only middle school principal to receive the U.S. Department of Education’s Terrell H. Bell Award for outstanding school leadership. Hoffman until recently was the principal who led the Russell H. Conwell Middle Magnet School in Kensington, one of Philadelphia’s worst neighborhoods, to stunning academic excellence. Adding to the story’s richness, the school is named for Temple’s founder and, previously, was Hoffman’s own grade school.
I pride myself in helping my clients to:
identify their best stories, and determine how to best tell these tales.
In this case, a brief alumni award summary that I read led to my suggestion that Hoffman would make an excellent day-in-the-life cover story. My reporting, interviewing and writing assignments also included the two other features: a story on the college’s Summer Autism Institute and a doctoral graduate who is now a Harvard psychologist researching Latino mental health issues.
I also interviewed subjects and wrote the copy for the interim dean’s message, first-person student profiles and all but one of the news briefs. To improve readability, comply with the university’s style and to make necessary trims, I edited/rewrote much of the rest of the copy, including faculty and alumni notes. Finally, I handled such project management duties as managing copy approvals, scheduling photography and collaborating with one of Temple’s graphic designers.
Click here to see a PDF of the entire Fall 2011 Educator magazine (PDF).