I Built the Foundation of my Career in my 20s

I believe it’s safe to say that my career began before graduation with my internship with Miami University’s Marketing Communications Office my senior year.  I had a love of Higher Ed since working as a student in Student Services and Career services, but this internship game me different vision of academic administration.  The marketing department collaborates with many offices to paint the big picture of a university.  I worked closely with admissions on creating materials for recruitment purposes.  I wrote articles about student life as seen from a student.  This was a valuble perspective since these articles would be use din publications targeted to prospective students who wanted to learn more about Miami.

After my dad passed away, I didn’t want to stray too far from home so I could be with my mother.  It was difficult to find a job in the area, but my mother went to high school with a local recruiter, so I had her help me find a job.  She got me an interview with the  Middletown Economic Development Corporation for the Information Coordinator position.  The Director was an old friend of my father’s so I think that may have helped me get my job.  It was also a blessing to be able to work with Larry having just lost my father.  The position was very temporary as the corporation was dissolving due to a new direction the city wanted to take and the current Information Coordinator had found a new job with the county in anticipation of the new direction.  

The MEDC worked on attraction and retention of businesses in Middletown.  As the Information Coordinator I did some administrative work as well as created documents to promote available real estate in the city for potential businesses.  I learned a great deal about economic development and what is important to help a city survive.  I also learned a great deal about the pettiness of city government.  I was sad to see the job end because I really wanted to “save” Middletown.  

After the ending of MEDC, I was on the hunt again and since I was desperate for a paycheck, I went the a temp agency so I could get something while I hunted.  I didn’t think it would lead to an actual job.  I was called into interview with the Greene County Combined Health District  in Xenia, Ohio.  The title was Word Processing Specialist II, and even the Director of Health Education who was interviewing me had no idea what that meant.  On my way home from the interview, I got a call from the temp agency to tell  me I got the job.  I must have really impressed Sarah, the director, to get a call on my way home.

I worked with the Health Educators on various menial administrative tasks, but a job is what you make of it.  I was only a temp for 6 months and was hired on full time.  With a marketing comm. and PR background, I took on a lot more projects.  I attended Health Fairs on behalf of the GCCHD promoting the services provided.  I also created marketing materials for outreach.  I redesigned what they currently had so that each piece had the same look.  I also updated the content.  By taking on these projects, I was working beyond my pay scale.  I knew I deserved more and needed leverage to prove this, so I began looking for other jobs.  I was really only looking for jobs to show that I could have evidence that I needed a raise.  I didn’t think I’d actually find a job that would take me away from GCCHD.

Since I wanted to work for Higher Education, I looked on all the local university websites.  At the time there were 5 higher ed institutions in Greene County alone, Wright State University, Cedarville University, Central State University, Wilberforce University and Antioch College.  I had plenty of places to look but found the most interesting job posting with Sinclair Community College.  A newly formed organization focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education was hiring a program assistant through SCC.  I had all the skills required and the pay was quite a bit more than I was making at GCCHD.  They offered me the job, and although GCCHD was willing to match what they were going to pay me, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work for such an awesome organization.  I really couldn’t pass up the chance to work with former Governor Taft who had an office down the hall from me.  Later I would work to help organize a conference on College Access and Success, a topic I would continue to be interested in as I advanced my career.  

Governor Taft introducing Chancellor Fingerhut at the College Access and Success Conference.

I also used my marketing communication background to work on internal and external communications and created in-house marketing collateral on STEM Education and Early Care and Education in the region.  I maintained the website, even though I absolutely HATED the software we used for it as it was very limited.  It was really rewarding to collaborate with communication committees on branding initiatives for STEM and ECE in the region.  After two years working on both STEM and ECE, a new funding stream for my position required me to work solely on Early Care and Education.  I continued to do a lot of the same duties, but just for ReadySetSoar, the Montgomery County ECE Initiative.  I was proud to work for such an organization.  Our partners collaborated to strengthen Early Care programs in the county.  Through the committees of the initiative we worked on how programs could easily access professional development resources.  The committed parties also worked on policy and to inform ECE programs of the legislative changes that would affect their centers. 

Booth at Voyage on the Parkway, a community ECE event on Kindergarten Readiness.

Funding streams would soon affect my job again and I would be hunting for a new job.  I did learn a lot about my strengths and weaknesses while working for EDvention and ReadySetSoar. I now know what areas to work on and am thankful to Susan Bodary and Robyn Lightcap for being such strong female role models. 

It was a hard time to be looking for a job and even harder if I was only looking at higher ed.  I wanted to continue this career path so I applied to a great deal of schools in the Midwest. Having just returned from a trip to the Pacific Northwest, I looked for work there and found positions at Oregon State University and University of Oregon that would be a good fit for me.  I had also applied to grad school at the University of Dayton and Wright State University, but still continued to search for jobs as I am not one to put all her eggs into one basket.  I was admitted to UD and was offered an assistantship that would pay full tuition and a stipend.  

I had not been offered even an interview from any of the Midwest schools to which I applied for employment.  I never thought I’d get an interview in Oregon, but I did.  I was even offered to interview via skype so I wouldn’t have to fly out to Oregon.  I must of wowed them in my interview because I received quite a few calls from different people trying to convince me to take the job.  I had a big decision to make.  I would have to postpone graduate school for another year and moth to Oregon...2400 miles away from Ohio.  After having conversations with my brothers, I took the job.  I needed to advance my career and my life.  

I made the right call.  I am the Development Assistant for Oregon State’s College of Science and thus am the liaison between the college and the OSU Foundation.  I work closely with Development Officer at the foundation who is in charge of bringing in gifts to fund scholarships and research at the College of Science.  It is a very unique job in higher education and I am lucky to be able to see this part.  I steward the gifts we receive from donors that either help a student pay for college or a faculty member fund research.  It’s truly rewarding.  Marketing the College of Science and putting together information that highlights the stellar students and faculty helps when cultivating new donors.  I meet with faculty to get to know them and their research so that we could pitch ideas to possible donors.  I also keep an eye on remarkable students so that they can tell the story of how an Oregon State education will jumpstart a rewarding career.  

Dean Bloomer congratulating the 2011 Scholarship Recipients and thanking donors for their generous contributions.

I really do love it and look forward to how I can grow in this position.  I do plan on going to graduate school at Oregon State to get my masters in either College Student Services Administration or Adult Education.  Both would lead to a career in Academic Advising.  By working so closely with the academic advisors in the College of Science I am learning a great deal that will assist me in furthering my career.  After obtaining my masters and more experience in Higher Education, I do plan on getting my PhD to focus on College Access and Success.  These are career goals I have for my 30s.