NORTH BRUNSWICK — Lawn signs are no longer needed to promote Veterans of Foreign Wars Clark-Moetz Post 2319 in Milltown.
Thanks to students completing a project for the DeVry University Senior Project Showcase, the VFW now has a website that includes information on programs, services and events held at the post, with some documents even translated into Spanish.
“It’s the first actual piece of digitalness that they have,” student Kimberly Pulda said .
Along with Shayl Taveras and Kelly Del Sol, the group worked on finding a way to combine their business and technical experience learned at DeVry with the mission of a nonprofit to offer services to the general public.
“They have a mission to reach out to the community and their vets,” Pulda said. “Veterans know they have a place to seek refuge. … The VFW gives them an opportunity to reach out for benefits.”
The website address is www.Milltown- VFW.com, and VFW members were provided with a user manual and Facebook manual to update the website themselves.
“It’s good to help someone in need, especially if they’re helping other people,” Taveras said.
As the capstone course for students in the Bachelor of Arts degree program at DeVry, the showcase allows graduating seniors to apply the classroom knowledge they have learned in creating “real world” business solutions. They provide their services free of charge, which is an asset to many small businesses that benefit from this partnership.
“This gives our students an opportunity to apply all of the knowledge and technological and soft skills they’ve learned here,” said Chris Grevesen, DeVry’s New Jersey Metro president. “It’s a great sense of personal and professional fulfillment
[in] giving back to the community.”
Crediting the staff at DeVry for leading the students along the way with impressive academic credentials, relevant industry experience and a commitment to student success, Grevesen said that each class is provided with a real-life laboratory or workshop in which to apply the career-relevant courses they’ve taken.
“I hope that they will carry with them the knowledge, skills and attitude our faculty has shared with them, and that they will act as independent problem-solvers and committed professionals,” he said.
Mariu Reynoso, Ruben Jaffe, Chris Craig, Zeeshan Rana and Dwayne Escoffery already exhibited their knowledge and skills by assisting Connie Caruso of TrainWith Me Fitness Inc. with a marketing and rebranding plan for her Morris Plainsbased company.
Craig said that an integrated brand promotion campaign should help Caruso expand her clientele and thus her sales revenue, which is the goal.
“By spreading the message, we hope to … see the growth she’s been looking for,” he said.
Combining their majors in accounting, marketing and technology, the group was able to strategize how best to manage an established business account.
“Alot of what we learned in school … is textbook work, so it is really important to apply it to an actual business,” Craig said.
Agnes Moskal, Charlen Tejeda, Manjot Kaur and Karla Velazquez spent their last six months applying their classroom skills to benefit Patricia Migliore of Roselight Studios Photography.
The business was established in 1997, though Migliore has over 35 years of experience in the field. However, she has no studio, but instead provides on-site services in the tri-state area as well as at destination weddings.
“She really needed brand recognition throughout her area,” Tejeda said of the group’s efforts to develop a website, marketing plan and brand promotion. They created business cards, fliers and a sample press release.
“Having someone from the outside looking in… and re-evaluating what she can do helps her out a lot,” Velazquez said. Contact Jennifer Amato at [email protected].