COVID-19
Business
Fellowship
Program

In May of 2020, I helped launch the COVID-19 Business Fellowship Program—a non-profit startup that pairs students without internships with professional mentors in their respective careers in order to help small businesses to solve some of their most pressing problems amidst COVID-19.

As Creative Lead of the program,

I was in charge of creating and maintaining CBFP's brand voice, reviewing and revising media content from other designers, and strategizing social outreach campaigns.

How it all
started

When the pandemic hit, students across the country lost internships and work prospects, businesses closed or changed indefinitely, and professionals were sent home in uncertainty. University of Illinois alums Alex Littleton and Walker Post

saw this as an opportunity for positive change, and had the idea for a volunteer-based program where students could help struggling small businesses. They passed along the idea of their mission to friends, mutual connections, and family. In two days, over 40 professionals and selected student volunteers got together to help organize and plan what would become the COVID-19 Business Fellowship Program.

Learning how
we can help

To figure out CBFP's identity, we first needed to learn where we could make the biggest impact.

We asked 47 small businesses:

"Which of these services would you be interested in CBFP providing help in?"

Figuring out
who we are

After learning about how the program could help those involved, we needed to practice some introspection.

I interviewed Alex and Walker and asked them some basic but fundamental questions about the program to better clarify and define the mission and its components.