Smaraki Mohanty, Doherty Emerging Professor of Entrepreneurship and assistant professor of marketing, teaches the course to immerse students in a client-facing consulting experience that pairs academic theory with meaningful community engagement. Most digital marketing courses deal heavily with case studies; however, with the course structure, students collaborate directly with local businesses and organizations throughout the entire semester. The course is designed to strengthen students’ understanding of digital marketing fundamentals, including website usability, search engine optimization (SEO), social media strategy, and customer engagement, while requiring them to apply these concepts in professional, real-world contexts.

“Community partnerships are a core component of the Digital Marketing course and are integrated through a semester-long, client-based consulting project,” Mohanty explained. “It begins with students being placed into small consulting teams, which are paired with a local organization. This allows them to analyze each partner’s digital presence and develop data-driven marketing recommendations to help promote their organizations to the community.”

This semester, the community partners included Empirical Wellness Center, Upside Aerial Arts & Fitness, Odessa’s Pots and Prayers, Haand, 64 Harvard, and Fjord, Inc. Through these local partnerships, students engaged directly with business owners and managers, tailoring their work to each organization’s goals and resources.

�þ��� gained increased confidence in applying SEO strategy, understanding keyword relevance and adapting best practices to fit unique client contexts.

“This experience relates directly to my goals after Elon, because with my marketing major and communications minor, I hope to specialize in social media marketing and digital work,” said Skylar Zimmerly ’26. “Being able to make these changes for Upside Aerial as a company, and watch their target audience, engagement and online presence all grow significantly due to my efforts, not only prepares me for working with other clients in the future but also prepares me with the confidence to know I’m capable of succeeding in my field.”

For community partners, the course provides access to research-backed digital marketing insights that many small businesses and organizations may not have access to. These recommendations have the potential to increase website traffic, improve discoverability and support long-term business growth.

“Upside Aerial was missing out on an entire audience to connect with on a new platform,” said Zimmerly on working with Upside Aerial on making a TikTok account. “Soon after creating their account and sharing their story/videos, we saw a large change in engagement. Additionally, as a marketing major, it was most insightful for me to gain hands-on experience with an actual client, mimicking what the future could look like in my career. With this, the client being a Burlington local just goes above and beyond my Elon experience, allowing a positive relationship to grow between the community we’re surrounded with. “

Through its community-engaged approach, the Digital Marketing course demonstrates how academic learning can create tangible benefits for both students and the local community. This course aids in the creation of future professionals while supporting the businesses that help make Alamance County thrive.

DeMarco, a human service studies major, started her engagement at Elon as a member of the Service Living and Learning Community. She continued to deepen her involvement as a Service Living and Learning Community coordinator and a leader of an alternative break experience to Asheville.

She has been involved in the �þ��� Kitchen program for several years now, initially as a farm shift coordinator, and now serves as director. DeMarco has been able to strengthen volunteer retention, along with an increased capability of harvesting more produce Loy Farm to help serve those experiencing food insecurity in Alamance County. She is also an advocate for service as the service chair for Elon’s chapter of Alpha Chi Omega.

“Megan has an unbridled passion for service that is infectious to all those who participate with her,” said Abby Wiatrek, associate director of the Kernodle Center for Civic Life. “Her leadership style has a natural way of showing the humanity and humility needed when participating in service that makes others feel comfortable to ask questions to learn more about why the service that we are doing is important to our community.”

North Carolina �þ��� Engagement is a collaborative network of colleges and universities committed to educating students for civic and social responsibility, partnering with communities for positive change, and strengthening democracy. The organization fosters connections between campuses, shares best practice information and resources, recognizes outstanding work, and champions civic and community engagement in higher education.

My experience reading the news these days is the opposite of looking at my friend’s mirror. I struggle to find a sense of hope, joy, and beauty. I see the world moving further away from caring for the most vulnerable of society – the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan. I do not see myself or my values reflected in the new world order that is forming.

This week’s Torah portion, , reminds me of my friend’s mirror. Buried within a detailed record of every item donated to construct the Mishkan and the high priest’s clothing is a description of a reflective plate on the high priest’s diadem (). The plate was made of the purest gold and had incised upon it, “Holy to Adonai.”

The Zohar says that this gold plate was actually a mirror that reflected the character of anyone who looked at it. Rather than seeing the gold plate as an ancient Near-Eastern fashion item, the Zohar recognizes that the plate does not just label the high priest as holy. Instead, everyone who sees themselves reflected in the plate also sees that they are holy.

Mirrors have long been an important metaphor in Jewish mystical traditions. Earliest traditions may go all the way back to : God speaks to most prophets in dreams, riddles, and ������������’a�� – this could be translated as either in a vision or in a mirror (cf. ). However, God speaks with Moses mouth-to-mouth (directly) and ������������’e��, which means clearly or in a clear vision.

Jewish tradition holds that everyone except Moses sees the world in a distorted, incomplete fashion – through a mirror. We all have our own biases, filters, and preconceived notions of the world. We also perceive others as distorted reflections of ourselves, a phenomenon we now call psychological projection.

One of the main goals of Jewish mysticism is to polish our mirror. Through prayer, contemplation, and introspection (), we can come to perceive reality more clearly.

Like my friend’s affirmation mirror, adds a wrinkle to how we might understand the metaphor of mirrors. The mirror-plate does not just reflect our character, but it also adds the written affirmation that we are holy. This affirmation corrects any potential distortion an onlooker may have had about their worthiness – they, too, are holy to God.

Nowadays, the construction of our sacred communities looks different than in Biblical times. For starters, rabbis do not go around wearing reflective gold plates on their heads. However, rabbis and lay leaders alike are still constructing communities in which all who participate can see themselves as holy, valuable, and belonging.

For many of us, it can be challenging to see ourselves reflected in the news today. If a person only determines their self-worth by the media they consume, they will have a distorted sense of self. When societies do not care for the vulnerable or let everyone know that they have inherent worth as human beings, it becomes even more important that communities of faith do so.

It is upon us to build and strengthen communities that reflect our values. We must find ways to continue to affirm to each other and to reassure the vulnerable: “You are loved” and “You are holy.”

Views expressed in this column are the author’s own and not necessarily those of �þ���. The original article appears in .

Going into the 2022-2023 season, Esworthy, the current vice president and assistant captain of the team, was unsure if the team was set up for success. He and Eagan Callahan ‘23, the club president at the time, took matters into their own hands last summer, scheduling practices and games and hiring a new head coach.

Despite beginning the season with a losing streak, resulting in the team being placed last, the entire season turned around after Winter Break. In the 2023 portion of the regular season, the team was undefeated, which secured them the final spot in the playoffs, a feat the club had never accomplished.

In their first playoff game, Elon Club Hockey, the eight seed, played against St. Joseph’s, the number one seed in the tournament. The game had an incredible turnout, with more than 200 Elon students, staff, faculty, and community members in attendance to cheer on the Phoenix.

“Playoffs were way more way more exciting than the regular season. The energy was there; the atmosphere was different. We felt like we had something to play for,” Esworthy said.

Although the odds were against them, the Elon team played a fantastic game, pulling out a 3-2 win. Simply making the playoffs was an unlikely achievement for this year’s team, and the upset of St. Joseph’s was the biggest win in the club’s history.

Their season has since concluded with a loss in the second round, but the team is already preparing for next year. Club members constantly recruit new players that contribute to the team’s sense of community. Team members come from different backgrounds, have varying experience levels, study across many departments, and are involved in various Greek and non-Greek organizations on campus. Esworthy is the incoming team president and captain and has high hopes for the upcoming season.

If you are interested in joining the team, please get in touch with Mason Esworthy at jesworthy@elon.edu