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Rhodes Scholar Postcard
When Klarke Stricklen was named one of 2022’s 30 Rhodes Scholars, the accomplishment was met with the expected fanfare within the Sewanee community. I was tasked with drafting copy for a postcard that shined a light on a momentous achievement, spoke to the rigors of a Sewanee education and the outcomes it yields, and inspired students to enroll.
Fall Solicitation Mailer
Alternative Concept
Front Cover
“I come back to the Mountain often and see with a pang, however different it may be to me, it is no different…Then with humility I try to blend and merge the past and the present, to reach the unchanging essence.”—William Alexander Percy
Interior
When we speak of Sewanee—when we try, in vain, to put our time here into words—we find that we are speaking of its essence. It is this essence that underlies the love we all share for it. It is what enables us to speak with one another about our time on the Mountain, whenever and however it was spent. Because the Arcadians, as Percy said, "never change. They may not be quite the same faces or the precise bodies you met a few years back, but the alterations are irrelevant... The lining is the same.”
And this holds just as true for the University itself. However different Sewanee may seem from afar, when we come home we see that the essence remains unchanged.
And it’s all made possible by the support of our donors. We ask you to join them today so that what was once given to us, we can now bestow on the next generation of Arcadians.
Please consider a gift to support Sewanee by visiting give.sewanee.edu
Between 2020 and 2021, Sewanee saw the stepping down of two presidents, repeated controversy, and serious questions about its relevance. In such turbulent times, many alumni were questioning whether the Sewanee they knew and loved was still there. To help the fundraising team address this, I mapped out two directions for their fall solicitation. The first derived inspiration from a section of Sewanee’s alma mater, focusing on constants of the Sewanee experience in the context of an uncertain world. The second expanded on a quotation from author and Sewanee alumnus William Alexander Percy. After receiving feedback from the Office of Advancement, Option 1 was selected, designed, and distributed, garnering widespread recognition from alumni as a return to form for university fundraising efforts.
A Field Guide to the Domain
A 160+ page, paperback book covering everything a prospective student could need to know about the Mountain, it has proven to be a game-changer for the last 10 years and continues to set Sewanee apart. As Sewanee’s communications strategist, the annual refresh of this flagship piece was assigned to me. Edits were made to reinforce tone and voice, highlight new features of the university, and adjust how the school went to market with certain value propositions. In mid-July of this year, the newest edition of “A Field Guide to the Domain,” complete with new photography, updated facts and figures, and a refreshed voice hit prospective students’ mailboxes across the country.