Author Archives: malcosermejia1

The University of Arizona SAR Project

Posted on by
Reply

Summary  

The University of Arizona is one of the best universities in the state of Arizona, being ranked the second best. With this ranking they want attract many sorts of people to give them a chance at applying to a university like up in coming first gen students. In order to gain these students UOA uses strategies like audience and inhabiting/ engaging in social roles on their website to grab the attention of their main audience.  

Analysis  

In order to attract up in coming college students to their school they switch into different roles throughout the websites to further relate to the students and get a deeper connection with them. For example, when going into the first-year student admissions one of the many paragraphs they include are paragraphs called “student stories”. They add these paragraphs in the admission tabs to make it more likely for interested students to see it. Once clicking on the paragraphs, it then displays many “student stories” about the people who have joined the University of Arizona. One of the very first stories that pops up is “First gen guide to Applying and accepting” (UOA ss) and by doing this they can further connect to their main audience.  They also add other stories that may appeal to other students who are interested in this university like informational stories such as “tips for your campus tour” (UOA ss) and student life stories like “the university of Arizona bucket list” (UOA ss). By adding these many different stories, it broadens their scope of people so they can attract not only their main audience but many other students that may feel interested. It also helps the authors switch or morph into the roles of the students/audience to relate to the students and come off as more friendly, making it seem like they are just like the reader. By switching into the role of the student/friend it builds trust and welcome which could make the students who are thinking of applying here more likely to join the University of Arizona which is one of their many focuses.  

Another way that they try to convince more students to join their university is through one of the many APATSARC strategies called audience. When it comes to audience strategies, they try to get a good understanding of what they think their audience needs to further connect to them by providing their needs. Some of the needs that the authors provide can be found straight away on the homepage of the website. For example, the authors provide easy access to financial aid by putting it on the first page of the website. The authors also add “academic calendar and deadlines” right next to financial aid since it is something that is also important. By putting these specific needs on the first page it makes the reader understand that the authors know some of the basic needs that students want, while simultaneously expressing their audience awareness.  

Overall, when looking at the website the authors display audience awareness in many of the different pages. One example is displaying the wants of their readers. The authors realize that not all the students are school/book driven and that the students need a good environment in order to attract people to their university. By knowing this the authors add a school life section to make the readers know that it is also a university that allows fun and leisure. They add sentences like “you’ll find fun options at the global center” (UOA sl) and “nice spots to meet friends” (UOA sl), emphasizing the welcoming nature of the school’s environment.  

Response  

While looking at all the things that the authors convey like the environment, the first gen audience, and their main focuses it almost feels like the authors strategies are working on me. The university heavily pushes the idea of them being very affordable and having “10,000 + first gen students” (UOA fyso) which are one the main things I look at in a university. I am a first gen student myself and it is nice feeling knowing that there are people battling the same hardships as me. One of the main values I have is having fun and making new friends. Knowing that there are first gen students in the university like me makes it easier to follow my values since it is easier to make friends with the people you relate to the most. The University of Arizona also has an engineering program that I would love to join since that is what I am majoring in. Having that major in a university also helps with another value I have which is joy. Being happy is my biggest concern and if there is a school that has engineering, which I would love to learn, I would happily join it.  

Work cited  

University of Arizona. UOA. Retrieved March 21, 2023, from 

https://www.arizona.edu/ 

Audrey Profile

Posted on by
Reply

Audrey is a senior in Charter Highschool. When it comes to her academics, she sees herself as hard working, self-compassionate, and persistent. Since Audrey is a senior in high school, she was given an opportunity to do programs that could help with her academic self and for her final year she decided to join the dual enrollment program. Dual enrollment is a program that is common among every high school in Georgia. It takes any willing student that wants to go to a college to gain experience and even gain college credit.  

One of her main reasons for joining was that it was better than staying in school and getting caught up with classes she did not care about. It would also help her gain college credit that could help towards getting scholarships. When she first joined the program, she originally wanted to go to a college in the downtown area but did not have high enough grades to get into it, so she decided to go to Perimeter. Since she is a hard-working student, after a few months, she did end up meeting the criteria to get into the downtown college but ended up staying here in Perimeter. So far, while staying in this college, she has found nothing confusing with the challenges it has to offer and is confident with the challenges that may come up in the future. 

She hopes by the time she graduates that she can get in the college she wants to go to which is the University of Georgia. She has been wanting to go to it ever since she was in school and hopes that she will be able to qualify for it. Once she gets to college, she plans to get a master’s degree in something related to business. So far in her preparation for college, she has done the SAT. When asked about how it was, she said it was stressful and hard. She tried it a couple times but was not able to get the scores she was hoping to get. She eventually hired a tutor that helped her finally get the scores that she wanted. She did not give up and kept trying to become her best academic self with her persistence. 

She has worked hard to achieve her goals like joining the Dual enrollment program, working on getting better SAT scores, and working on her academic self. When looking at all the things she had to do to achieve what she wants it reminds me of a sentence I read in the “The New Education” “students are on a journey, making sacrifices of time, money, and attention to strive for a significant change in their lives” (Davidson 3) which she is clearly doing. In a way it makes me feel motivated to work on my academic self and hopefully for others reading this it can help motivate themselves too.