Students’ Bring Your Boots campaign spotlights the Farm at RRU

Learn more about the Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communication program. 
 

A trio of students in Royal Roads University’s Bachelor of Arts in Professional Communication program dug into their passions for filmmaking, social media and graphic design to cultivate interest in a growing initiative on campus. 

Eden de la Fuente, Mariana Fernandez and Justin MacDonald are in their final term of the program and recently completed a social media campaign, titled Bring Your Boots, about the Farm at RRU.  

To raise awareness about the Farm — a 5.26-acre walled garden which currently houses a Giving Garden, Market Garden and Indigenous Medicine Garden — the classmates collaborated to produce a package of digital communications tools. Their creations range from a poster about “Benny the Boot Plant,” to TikTok and Instagram videos about paying it forward with potatoes, a 30-second Bring Your Boots commercial and a video in the eccentric style of a Wes Anderson film. 

@participantpresidents The Farm at RRU (Wes Anderson Version) #RRU #RRUFarm #BringYourBoots ♬ original sound - Bien Vincent Sagun

“We wanted a different way to approach the Farm and how it’s viewed by the audience,” says de la Fuente, who grew up in Victoria and transferred into the BAPC program after completing a diploma at Camosun College. She notes the team aimed for a playful and positive approach in producing their project.  

“We really wanted to emphasize community and showcase this pause in our busy lives to reconnect with ourselves and with nature,” says Fernandez, who began her studies in communications in Mexico, and later found her passion for filmmaking while living in Vancouver.  

All three say the project helped them learn about the community benefits of initiatives like the Farm, as well as how to successfully work together as a team.  

“It was a phenomenal experience for me,” says MacDonald, who grew up in Quesnel and previously studied digital communications and design. “Being able to work with these two creative individuals was life changing. We already had our strengths in different areas, and we knew we could use each strength in different ways for each deliverable.” 

Not just working together, but the students also learned from each other throughout the process. De la Fuente says she gained an appreciation for the importance of team communication, while Fernandez notes, “I found that it is OK to ask for help and to lean on each other. I really enjoyed being able to learn from Justin and Eden. It was great to understand their different processes and how they do their work.” 

“It made it easy for me to get my hands dirty. I just had to “bring my boots” and not feel afraid to try new things or do something wrong, adds MacDonald. Because, at the end of the day, I wanted to bring forward the best version of myself to produce something effective.” 

Learn more about the Farm at RRU.