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Resume

View Full Resume in BuckeyeBox
Skills:
  • Coding: HTML, R, MATLab, IBM SPSS
  • Graphic and Web Design: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver
  • Writing: technical writing, news and feature writing, AP style
  • Public Speaking: with and without accompanying presentation
  • Creating Surveys for Research: Qualtrics, Google Forms
  • Photography
Paid Positions:
  • Student Assistant at The STEAM Factory, Columbus, OH, November 2018-Present
  • Wallace-Carver Fellow at USDA-ARS NCAUR, Peoria, IL, June-August 2017
  • Wallace-Carver Fellow at USDA-ARS TMRU, Athens, GA, June-August 2015
Extracurriculars:
  • SEMI-ME Research Lab in the School of Communications, Undergraduate Research Assistant, 2018-Present
  • Honors & Scholars Content Creators and Social Media Team, 2017-2018
  • CFAES Student Council Liaison for Citation Needed, 2017-2018

Breaking into the Field of Photography

Photo taken at High Falls State Park

I took an introductory course in photography over spring break, 2018.  Twelve students and one professor all piled into two vans and road-tripped down to Georgia, stopping and taking photos along the way.  All told, we stopped in nine states and traveled 2456.4 miles.

Over the course of the week, we learned to use our cameras and worked to become proficient in photography, photo editing, and image composition techniques used in the agricultural communications field

Photo of spiderweb taken on Red Top Mountain

You can view the photos I submitted for my assignments during the week on my Flickr account.

Writing Samples

The following are links to articles I have written for various student publications at The Ohio State University:

ACEL Student Blog 2018

Czech Republic Education Abroad Student Blog 2018

Honors & Scholars Chronicle 2018

CFAES Student Blog 2017

CFAES Student Blog 2016

 

The following are papers I have written for class:

Final project for journalism class – my portion of a group project about study abroad opportunities at OSU for COMM 2221: Media Writing and Editing

News/issue feature article for feature writing class – a feature length article about the recent decline in bee populations written for AGRCOMM 5194

Formal Report – the final report written for ENGLISH 3305: Technical Writing. This was a group project so not every section was written by me; my sections were the Executive Summary, Objective, Analysis, First Usability Test and Results, Second Usability Test and Results, Final Revisions and Future Considerations, Conclusions and Recommendations, and Appendix A

By Design

When I first found out I would be taking a graphic design class as one of my major requirements, I was a little worried.  I tend to be more of an analytical thinker, so I was concerned that I would struggle with the creative aspect of graphic design.  However, much to my delight, the creative process is surprisingly logical.

The logo of an imaginary company I created for my graphic design class

For our first assignment, we learned to use InDesign to create vector graphics for a logo of a company (real or made up) of our choice.  We learned how to work with typography and color theory to make a cohesive product and how to avoid making common design mistakes.  The two big pieces of advice were: one, keep it simple; and two, if  you don’t know how to do something, google it.

All in all, I came to realize that there was no big mystery or need for mystical creative powers to be able to be good at graphic design.  Graphic design, like anything, is a skill that I was able to learn.

Facts or Feelings

On October 18, 2017 I attended a screening of Food Evolution, a documentary about the issues surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the difficulty that scientists face when trying to combat the misinformation and fear that has been spread.  The screening was followed by a Q&A session with Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam, an Animal Genomics and Biotechnology Cooperative Extension Specialist at the University of California, Davis.  The screening and Q&A session was sponsored by the OSU Food Science Club and Citation Needed.

Food Evolution Screening and Discussion with Dr. Alison Van Eenenaam

The movie started with a quote from Mark Twain: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”  Watching this movie I, as an Agricultural Communications major, felt a rising sense of dread as I saw just how much truth that quote holds.  I’m glad I went to this event because I think it has given me a clearer idea of what some of the challenges I’ll face in my career are and what some methods of addressing those challenges are.

The food evolution website states that “GMOs had become a metaphor for almost every issue we have with food and our food system and we wanted to explore if that metaphor had any merit or scientific truth to it. And perhaps, by better understanding the GMO debate, we would be able to make more informed decisions about science and technology in general. No matter the topic.”

My biggest takeaway was something that Dr. Van Eenannaam said during the Q&A session.  She said that the urge a lot of scientists have is to simply provide people with more data and more facts and information, because that is what scientists find convincing.  I tend to be a very analytical thinker, so I share that same urge to just beat people over the head with hard facts until they are dazed, confused, and slightly afraid.  However, the best way to communicate with a wider audience with less scientific inclinations, Dr. Van Eenannaam has learned through years of trial and, according to her, a lot of error, is to emphasize shared values.  In the instance of GMOs, that value is the shared desire to feed the world nutritious food in a sustainable way.

About

   Greetings and welcome to my portfolio. My name is Jane Hulse.
   I am an honors student at The Ohio State University majoring in Agricultural Communications and minoring in International Economic Development and Professional Writing.
Originally, I am from the Twin Cities in Minnesota, but ended up in Ohio to pursue my degree because I wanted room to explore. I have been fortunate enough to have my explorations include study abroad trips to England and the Czech Republic as I pursue the Global Options program at OSU. Through the GO program I have learned to better connect and communicate with people from diverse backgrounds. 
   Similarly, my overall education has been geared towards understanding a variety of different methods to communicate with people whether it be through data analysis, writing, public speaking, graphic design, photography, or even understanding how economic decisions can communicate individual and societal values. 
   My involvement with communications research, both through my work as a research assistant and through my work on my own undergraduate research thesis, has also given me a better understanding of the how and why these methods of communication work.  

Going for Gold

I received my Gold Award for writing a science based cookbook.  You can download a free copy  from http://tinyurl.com/hvx7qe4.

During my senior year of high school, I completed my Girl Scout Gold Award project.  My project was a science-based cookbook targeted to young girls that explains the chemistry of how the food we eat interacts with the human body.  The hope was that the book will help girls form a healthy relationship with food by showcasing food as a tool/fuel to help them achieve their dreams. Another hope was that by explaining the chemistry in an interesting way, the book would get young girls interested in science.  The book is made up of submissions of recipes and ‘rants’ from middle to high school aged girls who have a variety of interests and whose voices shine through in their writing.

The idea for this project was born in part from my involvement with the World Food Prize Youth Program through which I learned about issues surrounding food insecurity, including malnutrition.  I learned that malnutrition can be present even in countries where food security may not be an obvious problem.  Within my community, I noted that young girls would often have poor diets or try to not eat, to achieve what they perceived to be society’s definition of beauty.

Completing this project helped me grow as a writer and a leader because I got a lot of practice writing my own sections, organizing and editing submissions, designing the pages and sections, and coordinating with the people who agreed to help – as well as corralling those who had agreed to help but had poor follow-through.  I also grew a lot as a communicator as I worked (and continue to work) on my outreach efforts, which included contacting local eating disorder clinics, coaches, doctors’ offices, high schools, and girl scout troops to give them free copies of the book and information on how to download it for free online.  I continue to run a blog and Facebook page through which people can download the book and read new posts.

Writing this book helped me realize I wanted to pursue communications in relation to food and nutrition.  I really enjoyed the process of taking a complicated subject like chemistry and presenting it in a way that was interesting, entertaining, and easy to understand.   My work on this book also helped me to see how I could continue my leadership role in empowering young girls.  Realizing the goals of the World Food Prize Youth Programs and Girl Scouts have much in common, this past summer I met with the World Food Prize Youth Programs Director and the Senior Program Advisor at my local Girl Scout Council headquarters to discuss a collaboration between the two programs.