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Meet Minnie Bittell, a Public Relations major and Spanish/Accounting minor from Minnetonka, MN. Minnie plans to graduate in 2024.
Why did you decide to come to NMU?
I committed to NMU the winter of my junior year of high school to play women's lacrosse. I decided on NMU because of the fact that it was close enough to my family that I could visit home for holidays but I was far enough to be independent, having lake superior in my backyard just added to the appeal. This and the small class sizes, athletic facilities, great team atmosphere, opportunities within the business program, overall value of nature, and exciting hockey games made me choose NMU to be my future home.
How did you decide your major/minor?
Throughout the years I have switched my major twice, finding a home in Public Relations. I am a people person at heart and Public Relations harbors my creativity and outgoing nature by including a lot of the business aspects that I enjoy such as marketing and communications. One of those previous majors was accounting and while it wasn't ultimately what I wanted to do I was still able to get a minor in it. Having taken Spanish immersion since first grade, it is something I'm not willing to give up quite just yet. After I sopke with the Spanish teachers here, I decided to pursue a Spanish major to keep up my language skills and get involved with the amazing program NMU has to offer.
What's an example of a cool, interesting or helpful thing that you have done as a part of your major?
Something that has really made an impact on me as a public relations student is the Sustainable Business class taught by Jess Thompson. In this class, we got to go to a guest speaker talk from the organization Good For Upper Peninsula where we got to hear from a variety of business people in the Marquette community who are working towards implementing more sustainable business practices. This experience gave me insights into the different levels of business that need to be considered when operating.
What are you involved in on- and off-campus and what has been the most rewarding experience?
I work for the NMU athletic department as a PR intern and also am a member of the women's lacrosse team. I would say the most rewarding thing has been watching the struggles my team went through with COVID and us still being able to overcome those struggles and in turn seeing that success on the field. Putting in the hard work and seeing it pay off with a winning season last year made all the difference.
What would you tell someone who is considering coming to NMU?
NMU has the build of a small school but with that comes a smaller community that wants to see you grow and become who you want to be. Regardless of where you decide to go to get an education it should also be a place where you develop as a human as well as a student, for me NMU created a good environment to do that.