What has your career/education path been like since graduating?
While completing my Masters at COM, I joined Liberty Mutual Insurance on the Internal Communications team supporting their Commercial Insurance line. After a year and a half on the Internal Communications team, I transitioned to the company’s Public and Media Relations team, where I have been responsible for the company’s Public Relations Social Media strategy since 2012.
Why did you choose your particular field of study at COM?
My initial interest in the Public Relations field was driven by my love of event planning. However, as I worked toward my undergraduate degree in PR at the University of Rhode Island, my interest grew in other areas of PR. I appreciated the fact that the field offered the opportunity to combine my love of writing and communications with my passion for relationship building. PR is such a multi-faceted profession, and I love that I get to work on many different types of projects. I decided to focus on Corporate PR while at COM because I believed strongly in the business case for public relations and was eager to tackle the challenge of proving its value in a corporate setting.
What skills from the program have you found most valuable?
There were several courses at COM that were invaluable in preparing me for my current work. Much of what I learned in my New Media, Corporate PR and Media Relations classes still directly relates to the work I do today. However, I truly believe that the most valuable thing I took away from my time at COM was the network of professors, classmates and alumni I met along the way and the skill I built learning how to build lasting relationships with them that are still strong today.
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