Panda Brochure for the Girls Dorm

Wutong, a Chinese Senior girl in Cranbrook, and I made the Panda Brochure for the girls dorm last summer. The initial idea came from Wutong. She used this idea to answer one question on the application of Internatioanl Mentor, "what new idea do you have for the dorm?" When she applied, she did not want to waste such a good idea and asked me, "Fan, I know you are good at drawing, would you like to do a cartoon brochure with me?"

Our object was to make a brochure that is useful for the dorm and fun to read at the same time. And we decided to make a highly illustrated brochure with a cartoon panda as the main character. In order to brainstorm ideas, we walked around the girls dorm, went over the student handbook, and recorded every possible thing that we could include in the brochure. The topics in the brochure include: Dress Code, Fun Dorm Activities, Sign In and Sign Out, a special section for international students, and many other more.

We divided the task and drew all the pictures during the summer break. Since we live very far away in China (it's like from Michigan to California), we shared pictures and thoughts online and printed the picture after we came back to America.

I still remember the day when new students came, Wutong and I visited every new students and gave them our Panda Brochure. People love it! Many old boarders wanted one too because it was so cute and fun to read. We reprinted it 3 times and put one copy in the dorm office.

My happiest memory is always that I'm able to use my own talent to help people, to make them feel warm. Wutong and I hope to make the Panda Brochure into a girls dorm tradition. Wutong is graduating this year, and I will graduate next year, but we want more new boarders to enjoy and benefit from the brochure. A big Thank You to Wutong for the wonderful idea. She has a natural sense of humor and she drew her part with great patience.