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Personal Email: allisonbreecrawford@gmail.com

School Email: allison.crawford@biola.edu

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• The Forgotten Garden
  Here is an article I wrote on the CSUF Arboretum for my JOUR 232 Multi-media course! Hidden behind Cal State Fullerton’s backyard is a 26-acre Garden that needs your help. Photo By: Allison Crawford 20th September 2024 The Fullerton Arboretum, once a neglected orange grove, has transformed into a cherished sanctuary of nature, history, and education since its official opening on October 21, 1979. The 26-acre land was given to the University by the Gillman family which had once owned the Orange grove under Gillman lands. After being funded by the community that surrounded the acreage, the Arboretum Committee was finally formed. Years of careful planning and approval went into the initial start of the garden’s existence. In early 1972, the Friends of the Arboretum was formed to provide help for the development of the garden. To this day the garden still runs with the guidance of these individuals. However, this hasn’t been easy work. During the Arboretum’s start-up, the Trustees of California State University and the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Fullerton signed a Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement on March 24, 1976. This would establish help from the City of Fullerton to the University’s funding for the Gardens function.  Harriet Bouldin Development/Membership/Volunteer Manager at the CSUF Arboretum.  Harriet Bouldin has worked with the Arboretum for over 18 years, noting that she had come to work as a part-time event coordinator when the position had opened up.  “I was looking for a part time job for extra income because our oldest son had just started college…I loved the outdoors and loved to garden…plus I had been organizing volunteers for PTAs for many years” says Harriet.  After working for close to 3-4 years, she was moved into a full time position as a Development Manager where she works with all aspects of the support for the arboretum. She explains that her work ranges from, “volunteer program, membership program, working with donors, foundations, and grants”. Her call for help from the community comes as no surprise in reference to her experience and history with the Arboretum.  However, the garden’s long-standing partnership with the city ended in December 2020—amidst the chaos of COVID-19 closures—leaving the Arboretum in a precarious financial state. With no funding from the city and mounting operational costs, they were forced to close for over a year, and left with a non-existent budget. After a year of closure, they reopened in July 2021. This would also be the first time in more than 40 years of the Arboretum’s first opening that the city wouldn’t be funding their program.  Harriet also noted the issue with enforced paid parking for the lot in front of the garden, especially with the recent internet rage surrounding it.  Signage around the Arboretum parking lot. Photo By: Allison Crawford 20th September 2024  During the closure in 2020, the parking lot had been previously dirt filled until the University Park and Transportation began turning into an actual lot. After this renewal, the University began enforcing a $4 per hour parking during weekdays. All state-funded Universities are required to collect money for each of their parking spaces. Harriet makes note that the Arboretum has zero control over the charges for parking or any University affiliated charges.  “We do not receive any of the parking money… Unfortunately the community outrage was pointed at the Arboretum when we had nothing to do with it” Harriet comments.  For more than four decades, the Fullerton Arboretum has been a green haven for families, students, and nature enthusiasts. But now, its very survival hinges on the community’s willingness to step in. Without university or city funding, the Arboretum relies solely on memberships, donations, and volunteer support. This is where memberships come into play. However, many community members do not realize this. “Everything here has been free forever, and so that is a nice thing for it to be free. But the problem with it being free is that it gives the impression that, “oh it’s probably free because it’s part of the university or the city” but they don’t understand our need for support”.  The Arboretum needs help from the community of Fullerton, and currently the garden is under stress from lack of support. Harriet explains that their goal for members is 2,500. They are  currently at 1,000 members, still seeking the other 1,500 community members to come support this historical site. They also function off of volunteer programs and help, especially with low finances during this time.  CSUF News Image, CSUF Faculty and Staff Take Education Outdoors at Fullerton Arboretum To help preserve this historic garden, consider becoming a member or visiting one of their popular plant sales. Every contribution, big or small, brings the Arboretum closer to its goal of welcoming 2,500 community supporters. To get involved, visit their website for more details on how you can make a difference Garden within the Arboretum. Photo By: Allison Crawford 20th September 2024 With the increased pressure of technology and separation from nature. The Arboretum offers a peaceful environment to be in touch with nature. 
• JOUR 305: Story One
  Violence, Urban expansion relate to increasing number of car accidents in Los Angeles This is a project I worked on with four other Biola students for my JOUR 305: Data Reporting and Visualization course. For this project we got to work with data consultants who helped us look at our selected data to tell a story. They were able to help us create graphs for visualization and from there we began our writing journey. This course really allowed me to see the benefit behind data and since taking this class, I haven’t seen journalism in any other way. There is great importance behind using data to guide your story rather than trying to find the core issue any other way. This project was hard because of the layers of work needed to complete but in the end it brought upon a great lesson for getting interviews and supportive data. Click down below to access the PDF!
• Profile- Celia Cano
  This is a small part of a project I worked on for my JOUR 486: Media Narrative Project I worked on last Spring 2023. For this project, I really wanted to focus on the strong women that I have grown up around. I decided to interview a family friend, Celia Cano, who I’ve always known to have her own small businesses. I wanted to show the stories behind why she created these businesses and what inspired her. This project was a hard one but truly rewarding.
• How AI can Benefit this Generations Journalism.
  For my JOUR 306: Digital Technology and Social Strategies for Media course here at Biola University, we were asked to use AI tools to help create a solution to Journalism. I worked on this project with my classmate, Alexis, and from here we decided to work towards finding approachable AI tools. The first resource we used to create our video was ChatGBT, this allowed us to ask the generated AI to create problems/solutions that journalists are currently facing with social media. Once we got a good enough prompt, we continued to tweak the solutions to make more sense with what we wanted to create. Our final Problem/Solution was: Problem: The rise of personalized, algorithm-driven news feeds further isolates individuals within their own driven media, reinforcing pre-existing beliefs and hindering the dissemination of objective and diverse perspectives. Solution: By actively curating your social media feeds, engaging with reliable journalists, and staying informed through diverse sources, you can contribute to a more balanced and unbiased news consumption experience. After we had successfully found our problem/solution, we asked ChatGBT to give us a script for a video. There were a few problems while doing this, mainly the lack of information it was giving us. But once you asked the software to go more in depth, it worked out. We had to work more on the prompt so that the AI didn’t ramble on without answering the solution. We then worked on creating the video with a platform called Pictory Ai. This allowed us to input our AI generated script and allow the website to decide how the video should be crafted. After our second try at the website and moving a few things around for the slides, the video came out pretty well! We then picked an AI voiceover to deliver the script to finish off the project. Overall the process was interesting to say the least. It showed me how powerful AI can truly be when you use it correctly. There are still some bugs that you have to work around but nonetheless it’s pretty seamless.
• Glossier- the clean makeup brand that keeps their branding just as clean. 
  Glossier was launched back in 2014 by founder and CEO Emily Weiss. Upon researching the products I learned that Weiss was the founder of a beauty blog called Into The Gloss back in 2010 before the launching of the influential brand, Glossier. Seeing that her brand grew from her previous beauty blog is truly inspiring. Beyond this, Glossier has sparked since their first appearance. They are greatly known for their Balm Dotcom lip balm that has been around since their first launch back in 2014. They have since also produced products such as, Cloud Paint cheek color, Glossier You perfume, and Boy Brow grooming pomade. I mainly wanted to look more into Glossier’s marketing tactics and social media because I am a fan of their work. They have perfectly curated towards the Clean Girl Aesthetic and have continued to capture the attention of many users. I am going to primarily focus on their Instagram for their social media because I feel as though that platform is where you see the most marketing tactics at work. They still use other platforms like TikTok, where they have 716.5k followers but still their focus is similar to what they post on Instagram.  For Instagram, they currently have 2.9 million followers and are sitting at 5,022 posts. I was looking into when their instagram was launched and learned from WSJ that Emily Weiss spent 10 months carefully crafting their posts before finally launching the account. Since their products were only being sold online (Their first retail store didn’t open until 2 years later in NYC) they needed to market heavily on social media. Since the first launch they have continued to market to what they believe their audience wants.  You can tell from the screenshots above that their products are being marketed in a clean, natural, and homey environment. They normally have two posts that are photos to one video ratio. The videos range from 10 seconds to 1 minute. They use real people/ influencers to market their products, showing the users how to use their makeup in an everyday setting. Their videos either use no music to have an ASMR sounding background or they’ll often use soft music.  Overall I think that brands like Glossier truly know their audience and have been able to influence them to adapt to their new products. They have influenced a lot of the trends that have come about throughout the years and they have continued to have a dedicated fanbase.