Running Head: A REFLECTION OF THE PAST, TO BUILD UPON THE FUTURE
A Reflection of the Past, To Build Upon the Future
Kent State University
Alexandra Dowell
Running Head: A REFLECTION OF THE PAST, TO BUILD UPON THE FUTURE
Growing up in a household where both parents did not have a college
degree, instilled in me the importance of obtaining my bachelors degree. It
was continuously talked about, Youre going to college Alex. You better do
your homework so you can get into a good college Alex. My parents would
always pound that message into my head. My moms side of the family has
absolutely no college education in her immediate family, including my
cousins. My dads side of the family, on the other hand, has a significant
amount of college education. My grandfather was a family physician and he
owned his own practice. My father, also, has siblings who attended college
and received their degree. Truthfully, I never really considered not going to
college. I always knew it was the path that I was going to go down. The only
open ended question was what I was going to study in college and where I
was going to go.
In high school I never really had to try very hard to get the grades I
received. I had a steady 3.5 grade point average all throughout high school
and very rarely did I study. In fact, I really did not know how to study. I paid
attention in class and did my homework and thats all I needed to do to get
good grades. Although, this was quite nice in high school, because I had
more time to be social, it created terrible study habits for the first and
second year of my college career. Upon reaching my senior year of high
school, it came time for me to decide which college I would want to attend. I
toured a bunch of different colleges, some close and some far. When I
stepped foot onto Malones campus I felt at home. The people were all so
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Running Head: A REFLECTION OF THE PAST, TO BUILD UPON THE FUTURE
nice and made me feel welcomed. It was also close to home and had the
major I wanted to pursue at the time, art. Therefore, I decided to attend
Malone University.
My first semester at Malone University was my last. I started out
strong, excited and ready to learn. My first round of exams, in my core class
of Math and History, were not my fondest grades. I received my first D. I
was absolutely distraught. And to top that off my art classes were not what I
expected them to be. I found myself feeling lost and not happy, so I reevaluated my major. I thought of the things that bring me joy in life. I
thought about the things that come easiest to me, and I came to the
conclusion of children and English. So I switched my major to education with
a concentration in English. I felt refreshed and renewed and ready for the
new challenges ahead. Kids have always had a way of putting a smile on my
face and vice versa. I connect with them in a way that is easy and not forced.
I chose the concentration of English because it has always been my favorite
subject. I love reading and then interpreting the work the way I think the
author intended it to be read. I love debating and having discussions about
the symbolism in a story and then writing until my heart's content about it. I
thought I had finally nailed my passion.
As the first semester of my college career came to an end, I decided
that Malone was not my home and I began to explore other options. Malones
welcoming feeling that I had felt in the beginning had started to fade away. I
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Running Head: A REFLECTION OF THE PAST, TO BUILD UPON THE FUTURE
found myself feeling like I was on the outside looking in. I heard about Kent
State's regional campuses, like Kent Stark and I paid the campus a visit. Kent
State University stood out to me for a multitude of reasons. The biggest
reason being, that I could obtain the degree I wanted by cutting the cost of
my tuition in half. I also loved the friendly atmosphere that everyone created
on the campuses. I would be attending the Stark campus for as long as I
could and then I would eventually transfer up to the main Kent campus. This
university would be my home for the next four years.
During the fall semester of my sophomore year I took a class called
Media Power
And Culture. This class is one of the Kent core options and is not a
requirement for Kent State Students. The class ended up being taught by
Beth Butler, a journalist and Public Relations specialist, who worked all over
the United States. She shared her stories and experiences through her
lectures with the class as often as she could. She talked about how thrilling it
was to write stories for the public about topics that were so important to
their well-being. She also talked about the opportunities she had, like getting
to work with celebrity status people in Tennessee and Washington DC. Her
passion and excitement for this field oozed through her lectures and poured
into me.
After taking this class I found myself rethinking my career choice again.
I gave it sometime though, I continued pushing through my education
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Running Head: A REFLECTION OF THE PAST, TO BUILD UPON THE FUTURE
courses that semester and it wasn't until that spring when I finally decided to
switch to the communications major. I realized the importance of
communication in our world and how being a part of it can help shape
society. Beth Butlers lectures had a huge impact on this realization. I didn't
switch to the public relations or journalism majors though, because I wanted
to keep my skill set broad. I wanted to be able to be flexible in this line of
work. The man who taught me about this is Scott Batum. He is a
communications professor at Kent State Stark as well. He teaches some of
the freshman level courses in the communications department and the Kent
core class called Introduction to Communications.
He spoke to me about the communications field and how there are so
many different routes that a person can take with it. He explained to me that
journalism and public relations all fall under the communications umbrella.
He told me that when you are in this field it is better to be able to do a little
bit of everything instead of a lot of one thing. This allowed me to easily
choose the major of communications and then pick the concentration of
applied. In this concentration the student is required to study courses from
the journalism and mass communications department, the visual design
communications department and the department of communications.
When I met with my advisor, Ryan Butcher, we planned out my whole
college career and discovered that if I took summer classes I would still be
able to graduate on time, in the spring of 2016. I could not contain my
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Running Head: A REFLECTION OF THE PAST, TO BUILD UPON THE FUTURE
excitement. The only issue was I could not get public relations out of my
head. I scheduled another appointment with Ryan and we discussed the
possibilities of me adding a minor in public relations. With dumb luck, we
discovered that most of the public relations courses and applied
communications courses intersect with each other. And that it wouldn't make
my journey at Kent any longer, I could add the minor of public relations and
still manage to graduate, on time, in May of 2016. From there I was ready
and settled into the major that I would graduate with and make my career. I
had the world at my feet.
Throughout my journey as a Kent State communications student, I met
many very inspiring and influential people. People who would help me to
discover my interests and the areas that I excel at. Bei Cai is a
communications professor at Kent Stark, she specializes in gender
communications and global communications. I took both classes with her, as
well as, her interpersonal communications class. During these classes I was
able to weed some areas of communications out that I felt would not be of
interest to me, but on the other hand, I found some that I truly enjoyed.
Gender and interpersonal communications was extremely enriching for me
and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I enjoy talking to people and understanding and
learning why people do the things that they do when communicating. These
two classes helped me to explore this area through male and female
experiences and in interpersonal relationships. Bei is someone that I will
never forget and I consider her to be a big part of my college experience.
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Running Head: A REFLECTION OF THE PAST, TO BUILD UPON THE FUTURE
The following semester I took a class with Erin Hollenbaugh, called
Relational Communications where she further validated my interests in one
on one communications and how people develop relationships. During this
class we were given one of my favorite assignments. The assignment was to
study a relationship in your life as a third party observer and then write
about it using theory. I remember being totally freaked out by the length of
the paper and the amount of time and work that would have to go into this
assignment. But once I got the ball rolling the paper came naturally. It came
so natural to me because the topic was one of my favorites. I decided to
study my boyfriend's mother and son relationship and studied the concept of
a mama's boy. This assignment helped me to understand them and their
relationship in greater detail. It also helped me to discover another area of
communications that I love dearly.
Currently, as I am finishing out my final semester at Kent State
University, I have been given the pleasure of sitting in Stephanie Smith's
classroom. She is another professor that I will never forget as long as I live.
This semester, I have absorbed so much important and useful information
about public relations and life that will help me greatly in the work field and
in the real world. She has high standards for her students, which makes them
put forth their best work and that does not go unnoticed. She is a strong
believer in social media and is constantly posting about her students
successes on her Facebook wall. Professor Smith challenged my creativity
skills and pushed my writing skills to be the best that they have ever been.
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Running Head: A REFLECTION OF THE PAST, TO BUILD UPON THE FUTURE
She helps her students every step of the way and she is there for you no
matter what time of day. She has truly inspired me this semester.
I am so grateful to have had so many professors who care not just
about the grades but about the students as well and who have shown me
that hard work does pay off.
"Whats next?" This is the question that I get asked all the time, and I
am never quite sure how to respond to it. There are so many directions that I
could go after graduation that Ive become indecisive. For starters, I could
find a job, one that is in the field of work I want to be in. There are so many
jobs I could apply for, from being a communications director of a company to
working in the public relations or marketing departments of a company. I
could even look for an internship in these fields to gain even more
knowledge and experience before submerging myself into the competitive
communications job market. Another option I have been tossing around is
going back to school at Kent State University and obtaining my masters.
Getting my masters in what is my next question. I think once I figure out
what I would want to specialize in, is when I will get my masters. Therefore, I
am leaning towards finding either an entry level job or an internship so that I
can gain more experience in the different communications fields.
What I do know though, thanks to Kent State University, and the
communications department, is three things; hard work does pay off, always
do your research and you're never not the student, you're always learning.
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Running Head: A REFLECTION OF THE PAST, TO BUILD UPON THE FUTURE
Throughout school there were multiple examples of when I had to just buckle
down and work hard on a paper or an assignment, especially when I didn't
want to, but when I did this, that is when that "A" never looked better. Or
when I was completely stumped about a problem in my studies, and I would
research it and then research it some more. It was almost as if a gold light
would shine around the answer when I finally found it. But this never stops, I
should never stop working hard, not on my school work or in my work place. I
should continue to research and then research some more, whether that be
for homework or for a client. I will never not be a student, and I will carry the
characteristics of a student with me wherever I go. I know I will also carry
with me, in my heart, a little piece of Kent State University where ever I go.
