Post-MA Goals – 2021
After completing my MA degree, I hope to enter into the technical communication/web content management field or the higher education field (non-academia). My perfect job would be a combination of these fields. Five years from now I hope to be in a leadership role working both with people and websites or records. As mentioned earlier, I believe my assistantship and my effort in classes to leave my comfort zone will greatly help me in this pursuit of a leadership role. Additionally, I have recently taken on a Web Dev role with Sherlockian to further help me refine my web content/website skills. My role as an Online Coordinator of Special Projects has helped me further develop my administrative, managerial, and communication skills.
On a personal note, I hope that I am able to spend the next several months making friends in the East Lansing area while networking with people in the field. At the same time, Alex and I want to raise the puppies and give them the best lives possible. Essentially, I would like to spend the next year meeting new people while having the best life with my boys. In the next five years, I would most likely be considering getting married and starting a family along with my career. Alex is finishing up his Accounting and Information Systems BSBA at Central Michigan, so I just want to be as supportive of him as I can be.
Undergraduate Reflection & Evaluation – 2020
As I conclude my undergraduate studies, looking back I am able to see and appreciate the immense effort I put into my education. As I prepare to leave Alma, I am able to understand the way my time there has contributed to my own self-awareness. Whether it was in classes, the swim team, Active Minds, or jazz and concert bands, each has greatly influenced my understanding of myself.
Spending over seventeen hours in the pool or weight-lifting facility is a large time commitment for anyone, especially on top of being a full-time student. Often, I reflect on times where practice interfered with my class schedule. I would think of it as an inconvenience to have to get in the pool at six-thirty in the morning in order to put my education first. However, now I realize how lucky I am to have the opportunity to do both. Being a member of the swim team and being a student especially taught me how to be a hard worker and put my mind and heart into everything I do. Active Minds inspired me to help others and myself to understand mental health and spread awareness in order to create a healthy conversation around it. My time in the bands gave me a group to connect with as well as an opportunity to play my trumpet. In total, each activity has greatly shaped who I am as a person and the way I understand different groups of people.
Personally, I hope to raise my puppy, Finnegan, to live a long and happy life. One day, I hope to be married and have a family. For now, however, I am just focusing on my fur babies. In addition to Finn, I also have two guinea pigs Leopold (Leo) and Lenard (Lenny). All three of my boys have larger than life personalities, but as long as they are happy I am too. Ideally, I would prefer not to leave the Bay area. I tend to struggle with big changes, so something about the familiarity of home always brings me back. I hope to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle and my friendships. Although I may not have many close friends, those that I have are worth it. I had always struggled with finding the right people to have around me, and because of Alma, I believe I have finally found some people who make me happy and I hope to keep around me for a long time.
Alma College has granted me numerous opportunities that I didn’t realize were possible. I was able to participate in a Service Learning Course in which I was able to help the Gratiot County Community as a part of my education. This course was titled Social Media and we helped the local Community Action Program better reach their audiences. Within this experience, the first half of the semester, I was a member of the IT and Web Design team. My sole responsibility was providing a sample website structure that people could navigate better. It was ultimately a very great technical writing opportunity. I worked hard to promote navigability while adhering to their state-mandated requirements as well as maintaining their desired content. The second half of the semester, I worked on social media training videos to help their staff effectively use multiple platforms. I was part of the group that was responsible for the content as I helped write the script for the videos. In addition, the entire class studied social media strategies as well as texts to better understand the community and therefore the audience. This opportunity allowed me to apply what I was learning to help the community. Hopefully, the effort made by my class didn’t go unnoticed and helped EightCAP reach people in need. Alma College also gave me the opportunity to travel to China through their Spring Term and Venture Grant programs. This allowed me to travel to a country I would otherwise not likely be able to visit. The experience helped me better understand my own culture as well as others.
As a New Media Studies and Communication double major, I was required to have two internship experiences. I always had a feeling that I would like to end up with a career in higher education or technical writing. My communication internship gave me the opportunity to do both in collaboration with the Alma College Registrar and Provost departments. Although this project was more of the old-style of technical writing, it confirmed my desired career path. My New Media Studies internship, in the Digital Marketing department of the Mid-Michigan’s Children Museum, allowed me to utilize the skills I have learned within this major. Although this isn’t the route I plan on pursuing, I am grateful for the opportunity that allowed me to apply my New Media skills. Ideally, my technical writing and higher education career paths could incorporate my studies in communication as well as my web development background from New Media Studies.
Overall, my time at Alma College has greatly influenced the way I see myself and the world around me. I also feel it has prepared me well for my next steps in Michigan State’s Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing program. After I earn my M.A. degree, I plan to pursue my career plans in higher education or technical writing. Although I am not sure where I will end up, I am confident in myself and my understanding of the field that my Alma College education has granted me.