K. Alyssa Dan

During my junior and senior years at Mays, I have worked as a portfolio consultant in the Communication Lab. I get to help people think about their experiences in college and help them develop skills that allow them to pull meaning out of those experiences. However, another part of working at the Communication  Lab is working on internal projects. These internal projects range from peer consultant development to workshops we put on for students at Mays. My individual project was to compile all of the resources we use on a regular basis into a "Resource Library" for consultants to access information easier. In order to do so, there was a lot of data and files to sift through and I was quickly overwhelmed with the project.

A few months before I was given this project we began using a tool called Trello. Trello is an interactive, real time, communication and status tracking tool that is shared with other members of your team. Using Trello allowed me to see work that had previously been done on this project and made the load feel manageable. It was also beneficial for my superiors to see the progress that was coming along with the project as I completed parts. 

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Learning how to use Trello in the Communication Lab allowed me to use this tool in other organizations. After I had learned the mechanics of Trello the SUMMIT Conference started using it. My junior year on SUMMIT staff we had pretty siloed roles and it was helpful for our Chief of Staff to be able to refer to Trello to see what the progress was on any specific action item. I also used Trello in personal life when I was developing my portfolio for the Loudder Medal of Excellence. It is a helpful tool that in the working world may be useful if there is not already an internal organization system. Trello allowed for communication to be individualized and holds each team member accountable for being up to date with the information given.