Mercer Senior Macie Franklin wins QEP logo competition

Mercer University senior Macie Franklin was named the winner of the Quality Enhancement Plan logo design competition hosted by the Student Government Association.

A version of her design will be used to promote “Research that Reaches Out,” the five-year QEP aimed at improving student learning.

QEPs are required of universities preparing to reaffirm their accreditation.

“The accreditation process is judging what we’ve done before,” said Dr. Bridget Trogden, director of QEP and associate professor of chemistry. “And the Quality Enhancement Plan is looking at a plan to do something in the future.” Trogden is also director of the First-Year Integrative Foundational Program.

Research that Reaches Out will launch in the fall of 2015, and the plan combines research with service. Students, campus organizations, faculty, staff — almost anyone in the Mercer family — will have the opportunity to research a problem and implement solutions through Research that Reaches Out.

An example of this type of project is the Mercer on Mission trip to Vietnam, where engineering students fit amputees with affordable prostheses developed at Mercer.

The student design competition was a way to get students involved in the final year of planning the QEP.

“We’re going to use the logo in a lot of different places,” said Trogden. The logo is part of the marketing campaign for Research that Reaches out, and Trogden wants it to be everywhere.

“Especially with next year’s freshmen, we want them to really understand that Mercer is a place where you really engage in your own education and through making connections to what matters in the real world,” she said.

The official logo is not exactly like the one Franklin designed, but Trogden said it furthers the idea Franklin began in her design.

Franklin put a globe in her design, because she said she “wanted to incorporate the ‘reaching out’ factor on a large scale.”

A globe similar to the one Franklin used for her design is the focal point for the official logo.

Franklin wasn’t expecting to win because she submitted her design on the last day of the competition.

It didn’t give students a lot of time to vote for her design by “liking” it on Facebook, so Franklin was surprised when she found out she was the winner.

In all, her design received 70 “likes” on SGA’s Facebook page, more than any other design on the page.

“I am excited that my design concept will be used on promotional materials for the campaign,” said Franklin. “And a personal parking spot on campus is a nice reward, too!”

Franklin can choose a parking space on campus where only she will be allowed to park throughout next semester.