Mariam Elgafy
UCommunicate & USPEAK
A community of unique individuals with unparalleled talent working together for the betterment of our Bearcat Community and Greater Cincinnati region!
This Is Us
USPEAK is a student-run training and development organization, branching from UCommunicate.
Awesome! When did this start?
USPEAK was started in 2019, but officially launched in the Spring 2020 semester.
USPEAK & I
I joined USPEAK in the Spring 2020 semester as the Co-Director. My work has included:
Research development
Facilitating training workshops
Working with social media strategists and team of videographers
UCOMM Twitter and launch of my personal branded Twitter
The Journey
Spring 2020 - It Begins Now
Training & Development Workshops
The USPEAK team facilitated workshops for a graduate-level Biology class, as part of their professional development seminar. The training focused on personal branding, translational research, and storytelling of their final portfolios.
"Tell Your Story Through Speech" Blog
The UCommunicate team provides the community with blogs written by members of the team. Being a public speaking instructor, I felt the urge to share tips with students on using public speaking to tell their story and use their voice effectively. (Click on picture for blog!)
USPEAK Branding
In order for USPEAK to officially launch on social media, we needed a logo, mission and vision statement, branded hashtags, as well as set guidelines for branding standards for presentations and recruitment material. All of this material was created throughout the semester and promoted on social media, brochures, presentations, and others.
Collaborative Engagements
It is important to note that COVID-19 took its toll this semester and affected many campuses. A collaborative event with the Bearcat Promise Career Studio, "Brand Yourself", has been postponed to the fall 2020 or spring 2021 semester. USPEAK continues strong and prays for everyone's health and safety.
Recruitment video
Public Speaking Specialists
Lead training seminars
Social Media Strategists
Run USPEAK Twitter account
Training + Development
Research for training workshops
Videography credit:
Amina Adesiji
Chau Pham
Training seminars, content created, and more
Training Seminar
Each training seminar required research and development of original material. Content created was tailored to the needs of clients. These needs ranged from public speaking, personal branding, storytelling, data visualization, to others. The material is required to fit the discipline of the client, from STEM-related fields to the humanities.
Launch of Personal Twitter Brand
I began UCommunciate by launching a UCommunciate twitter account. This account is related to training, development, and participating in #SocialSunday posts. In March of 2020 I launched my personal branded Twitter where I engage with a larger audience on a broad range of topics.
Canva-made Flyer
Many of the flyers created by UCommunciate are made using Canva. I decided to implement what I learned with Canva usage to a face mask initiative I launched within my community. This flyer was used on social media, sent to different listservs within the community, and shared with many individuals. This initiative soon blossomed into a community collaborative.
