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A STUDENT EXPERIENCE THAT CHANGED MY ENTIRE CAREER
There are a lot of reasons why being a student writer at NMU’s Marketing and Communications Office is one of the best jobs I’ve ever had, and the fact that there was no “typical” day was chief among those reasons. Sauntering over to the Cohodas building after class three days a week, there was no guessing what I’d be assigned for the day; sometimes it was a press release for a campus event, other times I’d be interviewing a featured staff member for Horizons magazine. There was even one occasion where I had to chase down a sports team for a team photo at the Superior Dome.
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But even though I never knew how the day would go, most assignments went a hundred percent as planned. I’d call my sources for whatever I was writing, take notes and do my own research, then write it all up and send it to the News Director (shoutout to Kristi Evans!) for approval. I was learning in the classroom and on the job, and I thought I was as ready as I could be for a future career in journalism.
Little did I know that one typically atypical day at the office was also going to change my life and the trajectory of my career.
After receiving an assignment for a press release, I got on the phone with a professor who was holding an event to raise awareness about the genocide that was happening in the Darfur region of Sudan. In my mind, it was like any other media-facing piece that just needed to be filled in with a date, time, place, and a quote or two. And I was about to find out how wrong I was.
On the other end of the phone, the professor filled me in on the logistical information I needed. But when I asked her to expand on what was happening in Darfur - or what/where it even was - there was a pregnant pause.
“How can you be a student journalist and have no clue about Darfur?” she asked. And she was right.
I’d grown up 15 minutes away from NMU and had a very limited scope of the world, and that was the moment when that really hit home for me. I don’t remember what I said on the phone that day; I don’t even remember what the event was. But that was the day that awakened my awareness, and it was a lesson that has become the foundation of my writing career.
Right after graduation, I joined the Peace Corps and taught English to 4th-6th grade teachers in Northeastern Thailand. Now, as a remote worker back in the U.S., I work in Content Operations for a global company that has employees worldwide. I’m also currently in my second tour of service in the Peace Corps - this time as a Virtual Service Pilot Participant (VSPP) for a non-profit HIV/AIDS organization in Botswana. I still like to keep my days atypical, and I start them now by saying “dumelang” to my Botswanian counterparts and then “привет” to my Russian teammates.
I now know what happened in Darfur, and thanks to that one professor who wasn’t afraid to be straight with me, I’m a lot more involved in the world than I would have been otherwise.
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NMU Alumna Talks Overcoming Self-Doubt
When I was in high school, I didn’t feel supported; I felt like a number. As a student at NMU, I had a team of faculty and staff who believed in me from day one. It was the support I received there that allowed me to see my potential and work through my own feelings of self-doubt. Today, I provide similar support to my clients.