Q: What made you choose WCU and the Communication program?
A: I chose WCU because I had been looking really hard at going to UNCC, but as soon as I saw the mountains I was in love. I knew immediately that I wanted to go to Western. I chose the communication program because I was actually a marketing major, but I wasn’t quite enjoying it how I anticipated and I felt like I didn’t necessarily fit in there. Communications was my minor already, so I had been around a lot of comm students and I grew to really love those classes more than my actual major classes. After taking comm ethics with Don Connelly, and speaking with him about my future, I realized communications fit my skill set and my ambitions much better.
Q: Did you always want to major in Communications?
A: I didn’t always want to be communications, but I did know that I wanted to be in a program and a profession that involved building relationships with people and talking to people. (Which is literally what communications is!) Once I got into the program, I knew I belonged there.
Q: What did you enjoy the most about the Communication Department?
A: What I enjoyed most about the comm department is honestly the mentorship and friendship of the professors and the friendships I developed with other students throughout my time. I learned a lot of things through first-hand experience that I don’t think I could’ve gotten anywhere else, and I had a blast doing it.
Q: Where did you intern, and how did you get that internship?
A: I did my internship at Entercom Charlotte and I actually got the internship by becoming friends with one of the on-air hosts on twitter and he referred me for the position.
Q: How did that internship turn into the job you have there now?
A: I was originally a digital media and content intern, but because of unforeseen circumstances I became more of an “everything” intern where I worked with digital content, digital sales, marketing, promotions, programming, and in the business office. I built great relationships with everyone I worked with in the office in my time there and that eventually led to my job opportunity!
Q: What was your favorite part about your internship and/or your current job?
A: Honestly, my favorite part of my internship/current job is just getting to work with the most incredible people and learning something every single day. It’s something that makes me not mind getting up at 6:30 every day.
Q: What advice do you have for other recent or soon to be graduates?
A: Build relationships, network, and make your presence known at your internship. Even if you don’t get an internship somewhere, keep up the contact. Same goes with job offers. If you don’t get the job, stay in contact with the prospective employer. It will help them keep you in mind in the future.
Another thing—give it everything you’ve got. In an internship so you’re only there for a couple days a week for a couple months so you have to make yourself known and make the most of every opportunity. Make sure you have fun doing it, because an internship is what you make it. Anyone can show up for their hours for the week and clock in/out—but it sticks out when you give it your all.