IT'S PERSONAL

Their surprise was valid – this is my second master's degree, and a return to my undergraduate alma mater. While the familiarity of graduate school and the Zag experience attracted me to the program at first, the program’s online structure and flexible coursework would allow me to build upon my existing skills while helping me to develop new ones. In the ten years since I graduated with the Class of 2012, I have learned a great deal about what it means to be a teacher, a young professional, and a communications scholar. It means showing up for your students when they need you the most. It means tackling tough conversations and occasionally compromising so my team can move forward toward our goals. It means learning to listen in order to lead.  

Since I started the program in March 2021, I left my job of nearly five years at a nonprofit organization to begin a new adventure in higher education administration in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington. Painful changes in management and a team reorganization that began well before the COVID-19 pandemic already ignited my desire to transition somewhere new. Yet, the prospect of leaving my teammates and the good work that we achieved together was not without heartbreak. My studies in the COML program, and especially the Women, Communication, and Leadership course helped me realize that prioritizing my needs, my growth, and my emotional wellbeing was not a selfish choice – it was an act of courage. I did not need to play nicely and wait for my opportunity to level up. I could choose myself and take with me all the skills and practices I had learned on the job and in my coursework. 

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My scholarly interests in digital content creation and what makes a strong woman in leadership, stem from my love of English and creative writing. Throughout my post-secondary education, I pursued English for twofold reasons. First, I had lofty hopes of becoming a great American author or a respected professor. Even though I haven’t ruled out either of these paths entirely, my second stronger reason was that I saw English as the most versatile subject I could study. No matter what field I went into, I knew I needed to be able to write, to communicate, and do both well. Now, several years and several roles into my career, I can attest that my reasoning was solid. My background has served me well. Whether I was lecturing at the front of my classroom as a high school English teacher and a college writing instructor, or I was developing recruitment strategies to encourage young women to learn computer science, not a day of my professional life has gone by without requiring me to craft communications of some kind. My studies have reinforced my previous professional experiences while also giving me the chance to practice writing across different forms of digital media and engage in rich conversations with my peers about strategies for continuing to build up women in leadership.  

When I began thinking about my journey as a scholar and as a professional, I kept coming back to a line from Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” where “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (2002). The English major in me is quick to draw parallels between the speaker’s consideration of which path to follow and the crossroads I’ve faced throughout my career. To stay in the classroom or to leave? To continue in nonprofit work or to seek something corporate? To remain in education or to explore an entirely new field? As I continue to look toward the yet-unknown path ahead of me, I am proud to bring with me a solid grounding in mission-driven work experiences and an excellent, Jesuit values-based education thanks to the COML program. Over the course of my professional development, I will be faced with having to make decisions like Frost’s wanderer in the woods; however, I’m confident that the Master’s in Communication and Leadership Studies has already helped to make “all the difference” in helping me navigate my journey (Frost, 2002).