I just want to take a moment and rant about something that happened at college today.
We have these Community-Based Learning courses, where we do a final project that relates back to a real issue or organization. Due to my respect for the organization involved plus the fact that the issue which occurred was caused by one person, I will not be naming the non-profit my presentation was for. My group presented about how this non-profit could move into sports advertising, and my part was adding a sports theme to their logo. While presenting this to a representative from the non-profit, the woman commented that she really liked the one design and that it would work for something happening later today. I got an email from my professor later with a link to the non-profit's instagram where they had designed their own graphic based on mine and posted it. Nowhere in the description did it say that the design came from me, or even a mention of my university.
If the woman had come up to me after class and said that she really wanted to use it, I would have said yes. So I am annoyed at her actions. However, I am pissed at my university. I wonder how many times this has happened to a student in a Community-Based Learning course. We pay thousands to go to college, work hard on ideas for meaningless grades, and as a reward the college allows people to steal our ideas. I'm sure if I were to ask about what I get out of it, the college would give me a bullshit answer about "the knowledge gained in working on the project" and "experience for future jobs" where at these future jobs people are getting paid to come up with the same things. I got less than an student working an unpaid internship. When my professor emailed me, he said "Look what you did." Yes, and only the class knows it.
I suggest, to any incoming or current college student, that you never take a Community-Based Learning course. No knowledge or experience is worth your university leaving the door open for people to snatch your ideas away.
