WRITING SAMPLES
Sample article for Biomason. Click on image to view it in high resolution.
Media Advisory prepared for St. Francis 
Media Advisory
November, 24, 2020
For more information, contact:
Trevor Thompson, 585-403-6303, trevor.thompson@stfrancisraleigh.org
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI PARISH DEPLOYS ITS NEW SOLAR PANEL ARRAY REDUCING ITS CARBON FOOTPRINT
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA—After years of planning and months of installation, St. Francis of Assisi is ready to activate its newly installed array of 224 solar panels atop its Clare Fellowship Hall building which will prevent an estimated 1,500 metric tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted into the atmosphere over the next 25 years.
What: Switching to Solar – A short outdoor presentation and ribbon cutting.
Who: Msgr. Michael Clay, Pastor / Trevor Thompson, Director of Justice and Peace, / Marc Kielty, Director of Operations / Rob Neppel, Director of Finance / Deb-Royals Mizerk, Director of Stewardship
When: November 24, 3:00 pm
Where: 11401 Leesville Road, Raleigh, NC 27613
Additional contact: Jennifer Fiduccia, 862-208-9141
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Founded in 1982, the Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi is a Roman Catholic parish that is part of the Diocese of Raleigh. Located in North Raleigh, it serves approximately 5000 families living in and around the church’s immediate area. Msgr. Michael Clay, pastor, and Fr. Jairo Maldonado, Parochial Vicar are the two Diocesan priests serving the parish.
Raindance began as a section in the employee manual that I designed for Sassool which focused on the concept of leaderdhip – from managers to front counter employees, all were expected to embrace the leadership component within the context of their particular role at Sassool.
Since that project, I’ve expanded upon what I wrote and I’m developing it into a small book about leadership.
It’s an allegory for personal and business success which addresses the folllowing questions:
Why do some teams fail while others succeed?
Why do some companies succeed while others go out of business?
Why do some employees love their jobs while others hate it?
Why are some companies profitable while others continue to struggle?
Why are some people happy and others live in quiet desperation?
(Click on the above image to see the in-progress proof.)
Click on the image to view the high resolution version.
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Franciscan Influences: Connecting with Shepherds Who Guide
(article written for the HNP Today)
VIDEO PROJECTS
I’m an expert level user of professional video editing software and have used Adobe Premier, Final Cut Pro and others.
I am also highly proficient in sound editing, photograpy, and lighting.
2021 Bishop’s Annual Appeal
Baptism 2.0
St. Francis TV Premier Episode (in reponse to COVID 19)
As a result of COVID and limitations on in-person gatherings, I helped launch the parish’s St. Francis TV. It is a half hour show that features staff in interviews about important initiatives at the parish and throughout the Diocese. My role in this endeavor was to set up the stageset, while partitioning the host and guests and also lighting, video taping, editing and releasing the episode on YouTube and the parish website. I’ve produced four episodes to date.
I am shooting a 10 episode lecture series for St. Francis of Assisi developed by the pastor.
I use Google Analytics to track performace across the organization’s website and use each platform’s analytic tools to monitor performance. This includes Facebook, Instagram,YouTube, and Constant Contact.
I’m an expert level user of WordPress – my resposibilities include maintainance, design, and training staff.
PUBLICATION DESIGN, GRAPHICS AND PRODUCTION
Composite digital image cover art
LARGE FORMAT TRADE SHOW GRAPHICS
Eight feet wide infographic printed on vinyl.
Trade show graphic fabric panel (10′ wide) to display at the Award ceremony in Chigago. Detail of panel is below it.
The display was printed on fabric which easily folded into luggage for the trip to Chicago and was easy to set up.
HYBRID PROJECT UTILIZING SOCIAL TOOLS
Sassool needed a more efficient way to handle their HR across several restaurant locations. I set up their HR Central website on the WordPress platform and developed a series of interactive forms utilizing Jotforms to create a systematic way for managers to log, communicate, inform, and evaluate employees while a the same time keeping leadership in the loop about all vital employee communications.
Above: Landing page of Sassool’s HR Central website.
Below: Jotform system at the heart of HR Central.
From Sassool’s HR Central website, managers and staff can access training videos to get new hires up to speed and also retrain employees who may not have learned things correctly. Above are screen shots of a few of the videos on the site. I shot and edited a total of ten videos.
SPECIAL EVENT PLANNING AND EXECUTION
Paramount Carowinds’ Celebration Latina Festival
In collaboration with the Hispanic media and Latino business owners in the Charolotte area, I organized and promoted the first Latino Festival for Paramount Carowinds for three consecutive years. The events were very successful and we raised $30,000 for Latino youth education scholarships.
CORPORATE IDENTITY, GRAPHICS, AND MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTS
Corporate Identity and poster for Borkan Family Dentistry “One World, Many Smiles”
For this campaign, I set up photo shoots at each booth at the International Festival featuring the representatives from each country at their booth along with the Borkan mascot. The photos were then digitally retouched. The layout was created in a modular format to feature the photos along with the names and flags of the countries represented.
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Below: The Rainfall album cover and Drum Prophet logo created for Rex Hospital’s Eugene Taylor.
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Super Hero Business Cards
I was awarded the Entrepreneurial Spirit Award by Hispanic Business Magazine for the creation of Super Hero Cards.
This led to the creation of “Unleash the Superhero Inside” a workbook for business owners and the general public.
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Education Summit Speaking Engagement
A few years ago, I was invited to deliver the keynote at an education summit organized by the North Carolina Association of Hispanic Professionals, an organization dedicated to keeping our youth in school. The annual education summit was held at NC State’s McKimmon Center. I was invited back the following year to deliver the same presentation to a new group of students.
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Book covers designed for several fiction novels.
A Rabbit’s Tale was awarded the E-book Global Award’s Gold Medal in 2016 for Christian fiction. It also received the 2016 Reader’s Favorite Bronze Medal for fiction.
Persistent Evil received the E-book Global Award’s Silver Medal in 2019 for horror fiction.
Birds of Passage is an anthology that I produced which includes short stories by ten authors, including myself.
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Illustration
Samples of line art using pen and ink and pencil. Click on the image for a higher res version.
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Photography
Personal project: Seasons of Peace
Seasons of Peace took a year to produce. I took photos during each season of the year utilizing a peace sign which I purchased from a “free trade” market supporting third world artisans. Over one thousand pictures were taken from which I selected a set and matched them with quotes by famous people on the topic of peace.
Thank you for taking the time to view my work samples and personal projects.
Diogenes Ruiz
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