The London Humanities and Arts Project Center has recently experienced low enrollment. We surveyed and interviewed undergraduate students, faculty, and staff to establish ways to grow the program and improve student resources. We determined that poor outreach, lack of information, and cost were the most significant factors limiting growth, with students in London additionally needing better access to research resources. We recommended piloting a five-week program, promoting the Humanities and Arts Project Centers website, and informing incoming and current freshmen of project centers.
My Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) was completed in London over the Summer of 2022. I worked on a team with three other WPI students, tasked to to grow WPI’s London Humanities Program (HUA) program and help students in London access site-specific information. We surveyed multiple members of the WPI community, including students, faculty, staff, and advisors. We analyzed this survey data to gauge knowledge about HUA Project Centers, find where misconceptions exist among these communities, and address these concerns to improve the program.
Our team created a website that contained centralized resources for the WPI community. This included relevant program information for prospective students, faculty advisors, and staff. We also developed a page for current London students to find research locations in the city. This included a list of potential locations as well as an interactive map that sorted locations by Humanities disciplines (History, Art, etc).
We presented our findings to WPI faculty and staff, and drafted a list of recommendations that future administrators can use going forward.
In this project, I learned about working in a professional setting, and adapting a project to client needs. I refined my public speaking, presentational, analytical, and collaboration/communication skills.
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