{"id":18267,"date":"2024-12-02T17:32:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T17:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/?p=18267"},"modified":"2024-12-02T17:32:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T17:32:41","slug":"alumni-appreciation-hayden-huffman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/blog\/2024\/12\/02\/alumni-appreciation-hayden-huffman\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Appreciation: Hayden Huffman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alumni Hayden Huffman is the marketing coordinator at Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory, North Carolina.<\/span><\/p>\n

Huffman graduated in May of 2023 with a degree in communication with a public relations concentration and a minor in Sociology.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, his position at Frye revolves around a two-person team that creates content for the hospital and physician practices in the area. This content includes social media posts, photography and commercials.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy previous manager just left to pursue another career, meaning I am the only local marketing\/PR professional for every local aspect the hospital or practices need until her position is filled,\u201d said Huffman. \u201cThe only support I have is from Growth and Outreach and our corporate offices, Lifepoint Health. Needless to say, I will definitely be putting this interim period on my resume!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While at Western, Huffman was involved in PRSSA and served as the organization’s president. Additionally, he was the PR executive for Sociology and a performance team member in the Cataracts Comedy Club.<\/span><\/p>\n

Huffman\u2019s most enjoyable time at Western was going to class.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never about getting the correct information or passing the next test, although I always did, it was about seeing my friends and peers every day,\u201d said Huffman. \u201cI’ve made lifelong friends with professors and students, and I couldn’t be happier with how I went through it all. Not only that, but my network currently is huge because of how I went about it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Huffman advised students to get out of their comfort zone and push their own limits. And the best way to become a professional is to be yourself. You should not be someone different when you are making an impact, set yourself apart.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlways keep learning. Once my PR mandatory classes were done, I went and took broadcasting classes,\u201d said Huffman. \u201cI learned how to edit photography, video and audio. All that on top of a PR degree put me leagues above my competition. Don’t take your professors and the things available to you now for granted. On my average day, I wish I had office hours to get some help or guidance. Now, I have to learn the hard way for better or worse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Huffman’s biggest career goal is to become greater.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a beauty in the unknown. No matter where I am at, no matter what is going on, the only way to become greater is to take every challenge as an opportunity,\u201d said Huffman. \u201cI do not know what I want or where I want to be, but I know that I love what I do and will keep doing that wherever it takes me. Call it naive, but that’s the mindset.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alumni Hayden Huffman is the marketing coordinator at Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory, North Carolina. Huffman graduated in May of 2023 with a degree in communication with a public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3360,"featured_media":18268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18269,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18267\/revisions\/18269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}