A huge stereotype I heard about Communications before I went to college was that it was the “easiest” major. While all other reasons why I chose to minor in Media Studies are completely arbitrary, that stereotype stuck in my head, and ultimately got me to where I am today. However, after three years of studying Communications and Media studies, I have realized that that stereotype is completely inaccurate. While Communication and Media Studies majors might not have to spend hours studying chemical formulas or performing science experiments, we study people and how they talk to each other, alone, in groups and how media affects them. All that being said, being a student of Communication and Media Studies means that I study the hardest subject of all: people.
I have learned through my years at SNC that there are innumerable theories and models that explain just about anything that has to do with what we consume and how we perceive it. Whether that be non-verbal cues that tell someone that you’re frustrated, the tactics that celebrities use when they are repairing their image after they’re ‘canceled’, why and how we ‘cancel’ people on social media, why and how we aim to try to be like those same celebrities, the history of communication from word of mouth to newspapers to radio to television and beyond, how to pitch a marketing campaign, and more. All of these topics I’ve learned about have also led me to engage with many scholarly perspectives as I’ve read them to understand the theories I’m learning about, writing a paper on the findings of a study, or employing those findings in my own personal projects.
After a few semesters though, I decided I wanted my minor to be concentrated on Media Studies, as I aspire to work in marketing or public relations after graduation, and my marketing and crisis communication classes greatly helped me to reach that conclusion. My marketing class in particular also helped me with my internship in the Summer of 2022 at Sherwin-Williams. It was technically Sales and Management oriented, but throughout the duration of the internship I worked closely with other interns in my district to create a proposal that focused on how we could improve a specific aspect of the business. My group and I chose to work on how the company could make the D.I.Y. customer (non-professional painter) experience faster and easier. We chose to create a mock website where D.I.Y. customers could post their projects and a quiz they could take to find the perfect color and product for them. I performed a SWOT analysis on the issue at hand, a great technique I learned in my marketing class, that helped us to really gauge what direction we should go for the project.
When it comes to what I’ll be doing after graduation, your guess is as good as mine, but I am pretty certain I want to work in marketing or public relations. However, I still have one more semester to go, where I’ll be studying abroad in Limerick, Ireland. In the meantime, though, I’ve applied to another internship at Sherwin-Williams in their Spanish marketing department.
Below are some pictures from my Summer 2022 internship! The one on the left is of my co-workers and I at my home store in east Green Bay and the one on the right is of me and the other interns in my district after our presentation to the District Managers and other Corporate employees.
