One Last Semester
My original life plan was to go to school to be an occupational therapist. After sitting in a bunch of science classes that would help me with my “dream career,” I decided that I no longer had an interest in science and that I wanted to do something else. I finished out the semester and headed up to West Liberty University to major in something that did not involve my most disliked subjects, science and math. I chose public relations as a major and marketing as a minor. I spent my senior year of college interning at Bordas & Bordas before Wheelhouse Creative was established. Finally 2015, the year of graduation, had arrived. I remember starting my classes and while I had learned a lot, I wasn’t ready to be done with school forever.
Due to the aforementioned, I looked into online graduate school programs. I was a bit hesitant about an online program because I was not a huge fan of online courses when I had to take them during undergrad. A second aspect I contemplated was whether I wanted to start in the fall of 2015, or if I wanted to hold off for some time to enjoy life away from the textbooks. After talking to a few of my professors, and figuring out how I could make it all work, I settled on West Virginia University’s Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) program. The IMC program, allows communications professionals to build upon what they have already learned and how to vamp up their marketing plans to ensure that consistent marketing messages are being delivered to consumers from a variety of media. Rather than waiting to start the program, I chose to get started in the fall and made it a goal to finish the program within 18 months.
In just a few weeks I will be starting my FINAL semester of the IMC program and I can say that I am very pleased with my decision. I have learned a lot from the diverse faculty that are located all over the country, as well as my peers. Besides learning how to create integrated marketing plans, my favorite thing about the entire program is meeting my fellow classmates that all have unique backgrounds and interesting careers, and live in different locations. I have also enjoyed getting to create fun and unique marketing plans for companies of my choice. I have learned anything and everything about companies like Home Depot, Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and my favorite, Pittsburgh Popcorn! While I think it would be much easier to have direction from clients, I have enjoyed learning about all the companies and getting to use my imagination to build plans for them. I know everything I have learned will definitely pay off in the end!
My final semester comes with two early fall courses of Emerging Trends in the Media and Mobile Marketing. I will wrap up the fall semester with a Capstone. While I have enjoyed this process, I am counting down the days until December! If you’re ready to go back to school, I recommend WVU’s master’s degree IMC program. It’s fun and flexible! Learn more here: http://imc.wvu.edu.
Stay tuned for a follow up entry!
