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Academic Projects
This page is highlighting some of the major projects I have undertaken this past semester at The University of Texas-Dallas. These projects are primarily focused on general business acumen and cover a wide range of material, and media use.
Professional Email Announcement
The primary source of communication in the workplace as is my experience and what we have covered in my communications course is email. Because of this it is of the utmost importance to ensure that what is being sent, even if just routine, is constructed thoughtfully and professionally. In this activity we were given a topic of crafting a new workplace policy that sought the influence of the persons of whom it would affect. This project was worked through in two phases, the other of which is noted below. What I have constructed would be seen as the final draft of a workplace announcement and request a response from fellow colleagues. This assignment was to have been issued by my superior as I served as an intern amongst a sales group.
Subordinate to Superior Reflection and Correction Email
In this first phase of our email project we were assigned with the task of responding to an email request from our superior, as an intern, to review her to be sent email to a sales team in which we were a part. The primary focus of this section was to address tactfully a litany of issues with her original draft make corrections and suggestions, as well as, providing a response to her providing a general overview of our findings, and to accept responsibility to take on the project.
Digital Communication in the Workplace Group Presentation
Digital communication platforms beyond basic phone and email use in the workplace have expanded greatly over the past decade. Due to this, the fictional company whom myself and my group members were interning at were assigned with the task of creating a presentation for incoming prospective interns over professionalism and the use of digital communications within the workplace. As a group we developed a video presentation covering the many do's and don'ts of digital communications taking this opportunity to highlight and even demonstrate in our video proper communication skills and define what is and is not acceptable behavior, and more importantly covering the question of why.
Data Tracking Exercise
We as a class were given an opportunity to select a topic of interest for a data tracking assignment. For this I decided to focus on an area of great personal interest, choosing to center around my workout programs. After sustaining a couple injuries late last year my health and weight began to suffer as a result and I had gained a significant amount of weight that. In May of 2024, I began working to shave back off. I modified my diet and began to reincorporate regular workouts into my daily routine and have maintained a steady flow of progress with strength, body composition, and weight loss that I intend to carry forward. Despite this, other than monitoring my weight loss progress, ensuring that I consume adequate daily protein, and stay in a calorie deficit I did little in the way or tracking my calories burned during my workouts. I began tracking this information at the beginning of October 2024 and ran it through this publication on December 1st, 2024. I did not make any effort to modify or adjust anything in my routine from this information, rather I wanted to see a correlation between calories being burned, consumed, and weight loss.
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Starting with a Basal Metabolic Rate of 1971 k/cal per day I established that I was burning an average of 509.75 k/cal per day of active energy including scheduled and unscheduled off days during this sixty-one day period. This would confirm that my calorie deficit goal of 2200 calories per day is within range of my daily general average. Furthermore, I found that my average energy expenditure per workout sat at 716.07 k/cal during this period with most days consisting of 1.75 to 2.3 hours of training. During this period I took 14 scheduled/planned rest days, and had 3 unscheduled due to a minor injury that needed rest leading to a workout consistency of 72.1% of the time.
I began this period at a weight of 219.8 lbs, and ended at 207.8 lbs, which is 2.8 lbs less than my target weight of 205 lbs by December 1, 2024. I lost an average of .1967 lbs/day, and this is a slightly lower daily average than I had been on track with my start weight in May of 259.1 lbs. My average loss for this entire period is .2849 lbs/day. This makes some sense as I am not only focused on weight loss, but muscle gain as well and have seen periods of rapid transition and stagnancy as I continue to evolve.
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Overall, I am pleased with the results of this study and have found it quite helpful in making decisions on my continued progress forward. I will continue to maintain a high protein goal of around 225 grams/day and may look to further lower may daily calories as I have only made minor adjustments despite a reduction in my overall weight.
