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Western Illinois University College Student Personnel Program Graduate Students (L to R) Christi Reed, Emily Simon and Michelle Hutchison were recently named first-place winners in StudentAffairs.com's national 14th annual Virtual Case Study Competition.
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WIU College Student Personnel Grad Students Win First Place in National Case Study Competition

April 6, 2015

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MACOMB, IL — Three students in Western Illinois University's College Student Personnel (CSP) graduate program were recently named first-place winners in StudentAffairs.com's national 14th annual Virtual Case Study Competition. Emily Simon (Monclova, OH), Christi Reed (Macomb, IL) and Michelle Hutchison (Galesburg, IL) each received $150 for their entry, which was the result of a project they collaborated on for an assignment in the CSP program's capstone course they are each enrolled in this semester.

According to Simon, the students were given the choice of collaborating on a class presentation or the case study option.

"I actually participated in the case study competition last year with some of the second-year graduate students in the CSP program. I really enjoyed my experience, so I asked Christi and Michelle if they wanted to enter the competition with me, and we submitted our application," Simon explained.

"The competition was structured in a way that we did not know the specifics of the project until after we applied and were registered," Reed added. "From the time we saw the details of the project to when the submission was due, we basically had three weeks to finish and submit it."

Reed explained the case study assignment required them to imagine they were college housing resident assistants and to produce a video about bullying for undergraduate students.

"We knew we wanted to touch on cyber-bullying, as it seems to be happening on every campus in the country. We drew from our coursework related to how learning happens to try to make a video with the important anti-bullying message, but we also wanted to impact students emotionally—we wanted the video to be something that they remember and learn from," she noted. "Because emotions and memory are so connected to learning, it was important to us that our video remind students of an experience they had previously, maybe even something they have posted online or on social media about someone else."

While working together, Simon, Reed and Hutchison decided to use the "whiteboard" video concept to implement their case study project.

"We came up with the whiteboard idea knowing that Emily has some great artistic abilities," Reed noted. "We searched out social media apps for examples of things people really post about one another. From there, we mapped out which apps we would use and what examples of bullying we thought would reach the most college students."

Hutchison added the experience of working together on the case study project was beneficial.

"This was completely a group effort. From planning to execution, we did everything together and utilized the talents each one of us has to create the project," she said.

Tracy Davis, coordinator of Western's CSP program and a professor in the educational studies department, said Simon, Reed and Hutchison are outstanding representatives for the CSP program and for Western.

"The CSP students work so hard and provide such important support of WIU's mission, so it's nice to see national recognition of their work," he added.

According to Simon, she was pleasantly surprised when the group was honored with the national first-place award for their efforts.

"I knew our idea was creative and that we spent many hours shooting the video and then editing, but I had no idea we would even place in the competition, let alone win the first place prize," she added.

For more information, contact Simon at ES-Simon@wiu.edu, Reed at CM-Reed3@wiu.edu or Hutchison at MM-Hutchison@wiu.edu.

Learn more about Western's CSP program at www.wiu.edu/coehs/csp/.

Posted By: Teresa Koltzenburg (WIUNews@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing