Elevate is a campus-wide competition at BYU-Idaho. Students from different majors get together and present a project to a set of judges. The purpose of the project is to create something that will improve the campus experience. Each semester, Elevate has a different theme. This semester’s question was: How can we achieve unified discipleship amidst, diversity, distance and difference?
As we competed in the Elevate competition, our group discussed the concept of unity and connection. Why are students at BYU-Idaho so disconnected? What makes this university so different than others? My group studied the difference between BYU- Idaho and Ricks College and noticed the biggest difference – the lack of a mascot. We proposed that BYU- Idaho should reintroduce the Viking Mascot digitally. This will increase school spirit and unity among students, all while spending little to no money and providing networking and internship opportunities for students.
Reintroducing the Viking Mascot, known as Thor, can bring new opportunities to students in the form of design practice, internships, and overall student connection. The Viking Mascot can be implemented in BYU-I social media and merchandise, including but not limited to, the University Store. Hashtags can also be used online to increase school spirit.
The skills that I used for this Elevate project were my graphic design and writing skills. I wrote the abstract our group submitted as well as formatting the Google Slideshow. I also made the mockup Viking logo, which took a sufficient amount of time. I spent about 12 hours on this project, according to my tracking journal. I felt that my team was really connected and worked hard. Even though we all had busy schedules, we made our Elevate project great!
During the performance, I presented the slides that went over the logo design process. I talked about how the logo will help the school in three ways: internship opportunities, campus involvement through a student logo competition and new merchandise for the university store, bringing in new income and excitement from students.
Isabelle Justice 