GoHeels Exclusive: Adobe Partnership Benefiting Athletics & Campus
January 8, 2018 | General, Featured Writers
by Pat James, GoHeels.com
In an effort to revolutionize how students learn and work in a digital age, UNC announced in September 2016 that it would provide Adobe Creative Cloud licenses to students, instructional faculty and staff.
"They were using this to create these personal relationships that would end up turning into, we hope, opportunities for their careers and also just trying to pick their brains about why they do what they do and the kind of mindset they approach it with."
The six students who attended the WWSC were selected through an application process. Ken Cleary, assistant athletic director for Go Heels productions, said there was an emphasis placed on making this a campus-wide opportunity.Â
"Part of our strategic plan here is to make sure we're as engaged with campus as possible," Cleary said, "so this was a great opportunity for us to do it."
Communication, media and journalism, and business majors ultimately helped shape the group of students who went to Las Vegas. Among them was Madison Walls, a senior media and journalism major who specializes in interactive multimedia.
Upon their arrival on Dec. 15, Walls said they were able to explore some of Las Vegas. They then spent the following day setting up equipment and engaging in a simulation of what it would be like to cover one of the keynote speeches.
"That was probably the best thing they could have done for us because they kind of threw us in, we all found our fit and our positions and realized this is what we're going to be doing," Walls said. "We just meshed and worked really well together.Â
"Those positions we found on that first practice run are the positions we stuck with pretty much throughout the whole week. So it was pretty cool to see a team click that well, that fast."
The WWSC officially kicked off on Dec. 17. During that first day, Brown said the group created two videos and four quote graphics. It also began making a web story (Spark Page) with Adobe Spark.
The next two days consisted of similar tasks and video interviews with several Adobe employees, including one that focused on Matt Thompson, the company's executive vice president of worldwide field operations.
The crowning achievement of the trip came on Dec. 19, when the group covered a keynote speech by Chris Kielt, UNC's vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer, and Todd Taylor, a Norman and Dorothy Eliason Distinguished Professor in the department of English and Comparative Literature.
Brown said Kielt and Taylor discussed UNC's partnership with Adobe and how the campus has adopted Creative Cloud at a faster rate than any previous software. At the end of their speech, they presented Thompson a UNC basketball jersey with his name on the back.
"It brought out a lot of laughs," Brown said. "When they were introduced, people were screaming, 'Go Heels!' It was nice to see you had Carolina family pretty much everywhere."
By the end of the WWSC, Walls said the experience encouraged her to potentially purse a career at a company similar to Adobe.
"I think that from this conference I learned I really enjoy the people aspect of it, and I think I learned a lot more about collaboration because we were such a dynamic team," she said. "You had to collaborate with someone on sometimes the same exact file, and that can be difficult.Â
"It opened my eyes to probably reaching out more for jobs that include that interaction with other people. And in terms of specific jobs, I think it's opened my eyes to working for a company like Adobe that cares so much about its customers."
UNC is just the second university that has covered the WWSC for Adobe; Clemson is the other. And Brown said additional opportunities with the company could be on the horizon.
Brown said one of the students who went on the trip will participate in an internship with Adobe this summer. Making that and the trip to the WWSC regular occurrences could also be possible, as Brown hopes the relationship with Adobe continues to blossom.
"At the end of that day, we had really built a family there," Brown said. "It was almost like the end of the 'Breakfast Club' where they're like, 'Will we see each other around school after this?'
"I think some friendships were made and these students gained so many valuable skills that they're going to bring back to our university and our athletics department. And then they'll be able to take the skills we're able to give them and take it out into the world to do great things. I'm just so proud of everything they were able to do. They really stood for our values and our vision for the university."
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In an effort to revolutionize how students learn and work in a digital age, UNC announced in September 2016 that it would provide Adobe Creative Cloud licenses to students, instructional faculty and staff.
This partnership has grown since then, with Adobe applications becoming commonly used across campus, including Carolina Athletics.
In December, Adobe invited Carolina to provide a group of students and employees to support the company's social media activities at its Worldwide Sales Conference (WWSC), held Dec. 16-19 in Las Vegas.Over four days, that group flashed its Adobe skills by producing recap videos, infographics, employee profiles and other content. The event also allowed the Tar Heel students and staff to network with over 5,000 Adobe employees, including some of the company's top executives.
"It was amazing to see how these students really understood the opportunity that was in front of them," said Chris Brown, the assistant director of game day productions for UNC athletics.Â"They were using this to create these personal relationships that would end up turning into, we hope, opportunities for their careers and also just trying to pick their brains about why they do what they do and the kind of mindset they approach it with."
The six students who attended the WWSC were selected through an application process. Ken Cleary, assistant athletic director for Go Heels productions, said there was an emphasis placed on making this a campus-wide opportunity.Â
"Part of our strategic plan here is to make sure we're as engaged with campus as possible," Cleary said, "so this was a great opportunity for us to do it."
Communication, media and journalism, and business majors ultimately helped shape the group of students who went to Las Vegas. Among them was Madison Walls, a senior media and journalism major who specializes in interactive multimedia.
Upon their arrival on Dec. 15, Walls said they were able to explore some of Las Vegas. They then spent the following day setting up equipment and engaging in a simulation of what it would be like to cover one of the keynote speeches.
"That was probably the best thing they could have done for us because they kind of threw us in, we all found our fit and our positions and realized this is what we're going to be doing," Walls said. "We just meshed and worked really well together.Â
"Those positions we found on that first practice run are the positions we stuck with pretty much throughout the whole week. So it was pretty cool to see a team click that well, that fast."
The WWSC officially kicked off on Dec. 17. During that first day, Brown said the group created two videos and four quote graphics. It also began making a web story (Spark Page) with Adobe Spark.
The next two days consisted of similar tasks and video interviews with several Adobe employees, including one that focused on Matt Thompson, the company's executive vice president of worldwide field operations.
The crowning achievement of the trip came on Dec. 19, when the group covered a keynote speech by Chris Kielt, UNC's vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer, and Todd Taylor, a Norman and Dorothy Eliason Distinguished Professor in the department of English and Comparative Literature.
Brown said Kielt and Taylor discussed UNC's partnership with Adobe and how the campus has adopted Creative Cloud at a faster rate than any previous software. At the end of their speech, they presented Thompson a UNC basketball jersey with his name on the back.
"It brought out a lot of laughs," Brown said. "When they were introduced, people were screaming, 'Go Heels!' It was nice to see you had Carolina family pretty much everywhere."
By the end of the WWSC, Walls said the experience encouraged her to potentially purse a career at a company similar to Adobe.
"I think that from this conference I learned I really enjoy the people aspect of it, and I think I learned a lot more about collaboration because we were such a dynamic team," she said. "You had to collaborate with someone on sometimes the same exact file, and that can be difficult.Â
"It opened my eyes to probably reaching out more for jobs that include that interaction with other people. And in terms of specific jobs, I think it's opened my eyes to working for a company like Adobe that cares so much about its customers."
UNC is just the second university that has covered the WWSC for Adobe; Clemson is the other. And Brown said additional opportunities with the company could be on the horizon.
Brown said one of the students who went on the trip will participate in an internship with Adobe this summer. Making that and the trip to the WWSC regular occurrences could also be possible, as Brown hopes the relationship with Adobe continues to blossom.
"At the end of that day, we had really built a family there," Brown said. "It was almost like the end of the 'Breakfast Club' where they're like, 'Will we see each other around school after this?'
"I think some friendships were made and these students gained so many valuable skills that they're going to bring back to our university and our athletics department. And then they'll be able to take the skills we're able to give them and take it out into the world to do great things. I'm just so proud of everything they were able to do. They really stood for our values and our vision for the university."
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