 Good evening and welcome This is our third annual alumni alumni panel organized by the School of Communication Arts and Media known as SOCAM Within the College of Arts and Sciences My name is Catherine Schwab and I'm Director of SOCAM and Professor of Art History and Visual Culture in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts This event was made possible thanks to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences I am grateful to associate Dean and Professor of Biology Glenn Sauer For joining us this evening Four departments comprise SOCAM Communication English modern languages and literatures and visual and performing arts Special thanks go to SOCAM colleagues for their assistance this evening Professor Maurice Rose, Sara Diaz, Adam Rugg and Matt Tullis I'm also grateful to Deone Gray Wilson, SOCAM coordinator for handling many details We are very glad to partner with undergraduate admissions and alumni relations and to welcome admitted students for the class of 2024 For our current students in attendance this evening Be sure to meet Kim Nikolenko in the back and Steph Gallo from our academic and career development Center They are exceptionally helpful as you explore internships and make the transition from student to your professional careers Additional upcoming alumni Panels include humanities at work on March 18th and modern languages and literatures on March 25th There are flyers available for the March 25th panel. Don't miss them As we know students from the College of Arts and Sciences are tremendously successful in Building careers across a wide spectrum of fields Students in the liberal arts are particularly sought by employers because of their capacity to synthesize information Use critical thinking skills and to communicate effectively in speaking and writing Six months after graduation from the College of Arts and Sciences 98% have begun full-time employment graduate or professional school or service work This is a phenomenally high number and it speaks to the quality of the Jesuit tradition and education We offer at Fairfield University through the College of Arts and Sciences In the forthcoming hour, we will hear individually from our four panelists followed by Q&A from the audience Please save your questions for the Q&A portion We will have time at the end for you to come up and talk individually with our speakers The printed program on your chair Provides short bios to help you learn more about our panelists who exemplify the opportunities to major and minor Within and across so cam departments as well as schools of the University Please join me in welcoming back to campus Amanda Hujar at the far end digital content manager with the New York Knicks John primavera internal business affairs manager at Columbia Artists Maggie Andrew social media editor at Yahoo Entertainment and Lifestyle and Alexandra Ambrosio account coordinator with a commuto group there we go So I have asked them to self-select who will lead off and I'll just let you go ahead. I'm gonna be timing you That's my job now So I will signal if you need to kind of wrap it up for the next person to begin. Okay All right, I guess I'll go first So I'm Maggie. I'm from the class of 2014 a little background is that I am an English journalism major and a Spanish minor So when I was a student here, I had internships at us weekly and owe the Oprah magazine But when I graduated I decided I didn't immediately want to jump into my career So I went to Spain and I actually taught English in Spain for two years So a lot of people tried to advise me against it or say that I would miss out if I didn't get straight into my career But I would also advise you guys to take advantage of different opportunities I can't tell you how many times that's come up in interviews and people have been very impressed Especially as a journalism background You have to be able to talk and converse and people really were impressed that I kind of had the guts to go abroad So when I came back from Spain, I actually took a volunteer opportunity with team USA It was right before the Rio Olympics and all the Olympians were going through Houston, Texas Before they went down to Rio and while I was there I befriended the social media team They actually needed someone to talk to Serena Williams and I was the only one that was brave enough to do it for some reason And because of that they actually offered me an internship So it's the little experiences like that that you can't really study for that you have to take advantage of so that's kind of a segue into the importance of networking But then once I worked for team USA and an internship with them out in Colorado I was then I came back to New York and I got a job at people magazine where I was a social media editor and From there I moved to Yahoo, and now I've been at Yahoo for the last two years So now I'm going to go back to my notes. This is the part that I had to prepare for So I was an English journalism major, but really there was so much out there that I wish I had taken advantage of Now I'm hiring interns and I really look beyond majors and minors to look into their skill set When I was a student I wish I had taken advantage of video editing classes and Photoshop Those are huge skills that I now look for in every possible intern. My intern last summer was actually a fashion design student And she really made a compelling argument for why she wanted to work in social media. So we hired her based on that Let's see successes successes and failures are a huge part of Obviously everyone's career. I've only been in the real world for about five years now But I was actually twice told that it was my cover letter that landed me the job I like to use a lot of anecdotes, especially as an English journalism student I was a strong writer and that's really made all the difference in my career Social media is big on writing but in a very concise way And so that definitely comes into play in cover letters My cover letter for Yahoo actually talked all about the crisis that I had when Harry and Megan got engaged at five o'clock in The morning and that was something that really stood out to my employer She said she was selecting between 200 people and that made her laugh. So that's kind of how I got the job in the end Again starting out you're definitely gonna have failures Social is the most outward-facing part of the brand and I cannot tell you how many times I've seen a horrible comment asking what failed social media intern posted that on the page So you develop a thick skin really quickly Also You have such a great support network here at Fairfield, but you don't really expect when you get in the real world that it is a Competitive workplace. I'm a big proponent of tracking your own wins and being a huge advocate for yourself especially when You have job reviews coming up. I say this as my midterm review is tomorrow And it's nice to have a list of wins and you can prove that this is exactly what you provide to the company And this is why you're an asset Let's see Changes in my field in the field of social media. Obviously, it's always evolving. I Don't even think Fairfield offered classes in social media when I was a student. So there was really no way to study for it We actually just launched our tick-tock page a month ago I was not fluent in tick-tock nor is anyone on my team. So that was a huge learning curve But the part of social media is that you do have to go kind of roll with the punches When I started even three years ago a huge part of our job was Facebook traffic, but with algorithm changes There's nothing you can really do to prepare for anything So my role is kind of evolving into more of a marketing and brand positioning role. We now work with the commerce team We work with marketing. We look for different dark social opportunities Which are really the branded posts that you see that hopefully you don't even realize we're trying to sell you something So yes, that is my job at a nutshell My name is John Primvera. I was class of 2005 at Fairfield and I studied marketing and music while I was here I originally started just in the business school and I had not expected to have a music major But after taking a few classes here And after having appreciated it and participated in my whole life I realized I was really enjoying studying classical music and I'm really glad I added it as a major and After a stint after graduation where I had an opportunity would work with the visual performing arts department for five years Which was a great first opportunity for me. I was able to sort of combine those two majors I did a graduate graduate program in arts administration where I studied the more specific non-profit arts management But also a program that allowed me to get an MBA so that kept me getting a more general degree And so my music major played a part in where I am today. I'm at Columbia Artists, which is a talent agency in New York City And we work in the fields of classical music and theatrical productions But the point being about majors is that they served as a jumping-off point for me But my job now at Columbia Artists involves very different work than anything that I studied at all So I was able to sort of make a transition on the job once my majors helped me get into a particular field So at Columbia Artists as a company of talent agents we manage both the careers of solo artists like Conductors and pianists and singers and we tour Broadway shows we tour music and dance groups Orchestras and in an interesting kind of newer segment of the industry we license live-to-film concerts and an example of that would be you go see a showing of say Harry Potter or Batman or in our case often Disney or Star Wars feature films and Orchestras playing the score alive in sync with the film while you're watching and hearing the dialogue. It's a pretty cool Thing but more importantly, it's a growing part of the industry which is in the arts, I mean we're often trying to Preserve the classical art forms, but at the same time in the arts business. We're always looking for places of growth and sustainability When you're trying to stay alive but to explain a little more specifically my Transition within the company to different kind of work I'll give you a little bit of specifics that I started in a department Where we were managing opera singers. I was Doing some basic support tasks and day-to-day using this sort of mundane Software that the company had designed for itself had custom-built and I realized I had a lot of ideas about Well if the software was new it was still a work in progress ideas about how my and my Colleagues across the company's work could be done more intuitively and efficiently and so I took advantage of some opportunities by Offering to be on a committee to give feedback about this new software and help them develop it Eventually I sort of jumped at the chance to take on a little responsibility with it and and that sort of snowballed over time and Evolved into where I am now, you know At some point the overall administration took a little notice and I'm now in a position where I'm overseeing A variety of systems for the whole company at a corporate level And that includes both digital systems, but also like people-based systems. What are we doing? Are we doing it yet efficiently enough and are we getting it all done? So it was I'm in a very different place now in terms of the work that I do but again It was you know my sort of areas of study were jumping off point and it's sort of an example of How you can get experience on the job this all happened after I started there And I've been at Columbia Artists six years now I have another little story about How I got hired a network and I think we'll talk about in a few minutes. So that's a little background on me Hi everyone, I'm Alexandra. I graduated this past May I Sorry I studied public relations and I minored in marketing and Italian studies. I Originally came in as a marketing major But then I decided to go the PR and com route just because I could always add marketing as my minor But I think when you have a communication degree at the forefront you become more appealing to employers so I Graduated in May and I was so set on having a job right after graduation because I thought Like that's why you go to college to get a job right after so I Interned throughout my Fairfield experience at refinery 29, which is a website based in New York City It's lifestyle beauty things like that and I also interned at group 9 media and both companies were Completely media driven and I thought that's ultimately what I wanted to do I was waiting for a job offer from both companies and refinery was the one that gave me the offer first Even though I wanted to go with group 9 media But I was nervous that they weren't going to give me an offer so I went with the first choice Which was refinery and I worked there upon graduation So from May to October and then I realized that Even though I'd interned at media companies all throughout my college experience That wasn't really the route that I wanted to go. I couldn't see myself Doing that for the rest of my life. So I was looking for other jobs And a Fairfield graduate who was in one of my communication classes Reached out to me on Instagram actually and she was like my company's hiring Do you want to come in and see if you like it like the my boss now is actually a Fairfield graduate? So I went in and this is where I am now It's commuto group and I met with Brian who graduated a long time ago But he we really had a great conversation a great interview. I think the fact that we had the Fairfield Similarity was a great talking point, but we also were able to relate on a lot of different things So I'm at commuto group It is a production house for brands like lucky brand Jessica Simpson Corso Como and we just actually launched the Jennifer Lopez collection at DSW So I am an account coordinator. So I work with a variety of departments Buyers sales rep credit teams And DSW as a whole because they are kind of our management I decided that I was ultimately really happy with the kind of career path change that I made because I'd always known that I wanted to go in the fashion industry and With a communication and public relation major you really are more you can Basically get any job you want because you have those people skills. You have the marketing skills So whoever is a common PR major give you major props successes and failures. I Would have to say that I kind of thought My biggest success was that I got a job right after graduation, but then like thinking about it I'm like why I didn't like that job. So that's a failure, but I think That you just have to remind yourself like you don't need a job right upon graduation like you have internships under your belt Explore what you want to explore like there's so many different fields. There's so many different companies and you really can take your time Changes in the field So we are basic We're the production house for a lot of different brands and all of our production is done in China Obviously, basically everything you wear says made in China on it. So a change in our field right now is the corona virus So Since a lot of the factories in China are closed. We're having to deal With all of the ramifications that that comes with so we're having to Move our production to Ethiopia and to Brazil So it's always like thinking rapidly on your feet like J Lo's collection launches in April How are we going to get all those shoes to America in time? So I Think a change also in the communication in PR world is obviously social media is always changing So as we are millennials, I think we just have to keep on top with the trends And I know that Fairfield has a variety of different courses I know some of my favorites were mass media and society and advertising So just take advantage of all the classes that Fairfield offers even if it's not in your major or minor requirement because they're gonna benefit you in some way Hi, everybody. My name is Amanda Hajar. I graduated in 2017 To the accepted students. Congrats. Everyone says it's an exciting time, but I think it's more of a stressful time It'll eventually be an exciting time. I promise So I actually came in as a biology major Probably for the wrong reasons all of my friends went into nursing and I had You know, my uncle was a doctor and I was like, you know, it's interesting what he does I want to help people but I was never really in it for the right reasons Which means that I was just not cut out to be a biology major. I had a great natural writing ability I you know decent people skills that I needed to harness those natural abilities To make a long story short The summer of my junior year I actually changed to be a digital journalism major and I was petrified that I was not going to graduate on time I spent two years in a lab for six hours twice a week And I wasn't sure what internship I was going to get what skills that I just gained Was going to be translatable to this new field I had a great team of advisors and professors who helped kind of get me up to speed Ended up finishing early, which I didn't mean to so I had to take four classes to be a full-time senior year Anyway, so I finished early I took a bunch of amazing classes and I was fortunate enough to land a job at ESPN coming out of graduation and I think the note on that is You know, you don't have to land the perfect job or any job to other panelists point right after graduation I think there's a lot of pressure when you're in college of everyone's talking about the internships They're doing everyone's talking about the connections They have or the people that they're going to talk to or network to And I think part of my advice that would just be you have your own path and you have your own career and your own interests And that's really the value of what you bring to your own life and not to worry about what others are doing at their stage in their career I had an internship at CBS in Boston where I'm from Which did not lead to a full-time position. That's fine. A lot of my friends. They're like, yep, they hired me I'm good. So I was a bit worried, but anyway back to jumping back to my career I worked at ESPN for about 11 months and I really wanted to live in the city So I applied to Everything in anywhere in the city, which I don't always recommend because there were some questionable things that I applied to I landed a job at Madison Square Garden in their marketing partnerships department. I had no idea what partnerships was I had no idea what a P&L was or revenue was But what I did have was a base that Fairfield helped me create of common sense a motor a willingness to learn and A solutions-based mindset, which I can't stress enough how important that is I think a lot of people are great at pointing out the problem But you want to be the person that finds a solution. So My role was literally a business solutions coordinator Which range from helping current partners out to Working with the Cal management to finding out what what packages fit around the Knicks and the Rangers for sponsorship As well as working with new business and new sales pitches Which kind of segues into networking so through that role. I made a lot of connections within the company with event presentation community relations digital and social Marketing so on and so forth and that's when a role opened up on the next digital team Which I honestly found out through networking So it really it doesn't stop and the thing about networking I think at least when I was going through it at Fairfield I was like Networking seemed to me as you meet someone and then you later on ask them for a job and I was like that doesn't seem organic But it's more so just building relationships You don't have to know what you want to do But you can understand what other people do and see if that applies to you in any way And if it doesn't great, you just learned something So that's really what I wanted to take is going through this business solutions role opened me up to a lot of different areas around the company And I eventually I actually just started in December as a digital content manager for the New York Knicks Which has its headaches as you can imagine and its successes as well. So it's very interesting. It's very fun We were just in Chicago with RJ for NBA All-Star weekend and we get right back into game coverage. So our Our responsibilities really range from the business side of it to branded posts sponsored content to editorial To live game coverage and live event coverage and then the larger NBA platforms like draft lottery summer league So on and so forth. Hopefully playoffs someday So yeah, that's that would that would be my advice think I let me see if I missed anything here I didn't look down at this one. Oh Everyone says where do you want to be in five years? It's okay. If you don't know the answer to that question All you need is a motor and a willingness to learn and that drive to you know, be better than the day before and You'll all figure it out. I promise We have an opportunity to ask them to reflect on and share with you specific anecdotes or an anecdote Concerning a networking contact Experience something that perhaps was pivotal to your personal experience and I know John you you have something You've got something you're thinking about Maggie. Did you did you have something you wanted to lead off with or should we lead off with John? It's really just a little story about how I got the job originally at my current company I had during my graduate program I had maybe four or five internships or part-time work experiences at different arts companies doing a variety of different things and One of them I was lucky enough to over one summer do a few like very insignificant jobs for the Metropolitan Opera This was during their downtime and I really was just getting some behind-the-scenes You know a little information on what what goes on there behind the scenes Now if you're not so familiar the Met Opera It's one of the biggest nonprofit arts organizations in the country and one of the most highly regarded opera companies internationally and I say that just because To set up that I had a couple very brief interactions with an executive there who's in charge of the whole artistic division and I worked mainly with his assistant and other departments and I thought you know not much of these conversations I may have had with him But fast forward to a year and a half later after I finished grad school I had been applying to jobs for a number of months and Nothing really coming to fruition and I get a call from someone at my current company who Apparently works with this executive closely was looking to hire someone and The point is that the executive who I had this brief meeting with remembered a year and a half earlier who I was that I would be in the area looking for a job and I just that was completely unexpected to me and this was coming from a company that I Didn't have the company or the industry on my radar at all So that's how I got the job where I am now and I guess my advice is to just sort of approach each introduction or Potential relationship with an open mind because certainly in the arts and probably these other industries we're talking about tonight They're small industries and people will pop up in different places where you don't expect them Sure, I Don't know if I just say this story. I'm just gonna it's an interesting one because I was again I was a business solutions coordinator. I felt like I've you know learned a ton my first eight months there And then I felt like I was you know kind of leveling out Still liking what I was doing but was starting to kind of be aware of okay What is my next step here and I wanted it to be within the company because I did enjoy working for MSG So one of my who's my boss now He was a friend at the time and we were both just having a really really long day And we ran into each other and he was like oh, how's your day going? And I was like are you guys hiring and he was like We might be and that actually they opened up that position later on But the point is that he and I worked together Because he was working on the digital side and I was working on the sponsorship side. We intersected a lot On what what's working for partners? What's not working for partners and a big part of that is just being proactive There's a lot of email warriors out there who it just sometimes face-to-face is the best way to interact with someone So whenever you know we weren't working on a project together He and I would always make it a point to get coffee talk about it I can see his side and he can see my side Because ultimately That's what any good relationship and including networking is is you understand what they need to do and they understand What you need to do is a job and then how can you meet in the middle? So that's really what helped a lot and I also when I was kind of exploring what I wanted to do next Our event presentation team who's basically in charge of all the music in arena the encore contests or the on ice contest Anything that's playing or going on in arena. They are responsible for it's basically their live show I shadowed the director at a game. I found out it was cool It's not really what I wanted to do But just taking those steps to go shadow someone within your department or within your team or in your company and just you know exploring it from there segueing off that There's also a huge Opportunity for informational interviews when I was a senior I took advantage of that and I kind of extended myself to my network Asked who knew someone where I had an informational interview at Buzzfeed at people Then I went to Spain for two years But when I came back I still had those contacts and when I was hired at people I already had that connection in the building So definitely don't be afraid to reach out to people. I know since I've been at Yahoo I've already had a number of people come in and reach out for an Informational interview so it's always nice to start making contacts that way Since I'm a recent grad I also utilized linked in a lot I think that the career center really urges all students to find Companies where Fairfield alumni are working and I think that's really beneficial because if you shoot someone a message on there You'll have that Fairfield connection and I can attest like I got my job by to Fairfield alumni connection So I think it's a great talking point And it's just really nice to know that all of our alumni are so successful whether it's in Connecticut Boston or New York City There's always a stag present. So don't hesitate to reach out. I know I get so excited if someone's like oh you went to Fairfield I'm like, yes you too. So it's a good network This has been wonderful. Thank you. We're going to turn to the Q&A now So you're going to get questions from the audience and professor Sara Diaz has a microphone so Raise your hand with your question. It's important to speak into the microphone because the video Otherwise cannot hear you or your question. So who would like to lead off anybody? Yes Hi, Adam Rugg. I'm a faculty member in the department of communication I'm curious if What y'all found helpful? Outside the classroom in terms of things you did working with faculty outside the classroom setting or extracurricular activities or other opportunities That that you felt really sort of helped contribute to your success once you either finding a job or once you were in your job I think something I wish I did more I did a little bit of it towards the end of my time at Fairfield was getting to know my professors as people Because at the end of the day they're professionals in their space and they know the space Way better than you do. So I wish I did that a little bit more because Finding out about that, you know, what what they're bringing and what their background is kind of helped me understand the industry more as well And I think you know, I wrote for the mirror for a couple years as well And just being aware of what's on campus really helps in going to it You don't have to go for the whole time but just being around campus and getting to know as many people Both in your class and other classes as much as possible is super helpful So I think for me it was writing for the mirror, you know, it introduced me to a handful of people Excuse me, and I was able to write, you know, I wanted to write about sports So I was able to write about sports so you can find your niche passion within The university for sure you just need to go look for it because I think that's the biggest Kind of like culture shock I felt coming to college is that everything is so planned out from you for For your until you're in college college is kind of the first time you can actually Step out and see okay What do I like and you have to go find what you like and you know immerse yourself in it so that's you know That's something I wish I did better. I Think the study abroad program also really helps you become a real adult because you're literally thrown into a foreign country And not that you have to fend for yourself, but you're in a foreign country You try to learn a couple of words of the language and you really grow up And I think that when I studied abroad in Italy, that was the time when I really was like, okay So this is what life is going to be like after graduation. So The opportunity to go to a different country while you're studying at Fairfield and you get to be with your peers You become friends with people you never thought you would know you take different classes that they offer at the campuses Abroad so I would suggest everyone to do that just because you're so out of your comfort zone And that'll ultimately help you in the long run when you're tasked with something. You're not normally accustomed to doing When I was a student I participated also in the mirror Ham channel. I think it was rebranded to stags TV. I don't know if it's been further rebranded And when I was interviewing for journalism jobs, it was really helpful to have like a body of work So I showed them all my mirror clips. It was also helpful to have stags TV experience Video editing is a huge in my field right now and I wish I had more of it Also as Allison smiles at me from the background. I was very involved in admissions I wasn't always the most outgoing person which is kind of to my detriment when you're a journalist And you need to be able to approach people So it's nice having a background in admissions where I can then get very well accustomed to speaking to crowds of people So all of those were great to get involved with great skills that you can transfer to a number of careers Hi, I'm Claire and I'm currently a freshman here at Fairfield and I'm a communications major And I'm currently looking for a minor to pair with communications or another major depending I was just wondering how you chose your minors if you're a double major and if it benefits you at all today I probably have said this already my choosing my second major was really based on just my interest in something I was passionate about and it did end up influencing the industry I got into even though my my work type of work changed eventually, but I wouldn't be afraid to add something that You're interested in just for the sake of enjoying studying it. Yeah, I I'm a market. I was a marketing minor I was also a biology minor, but that's only because I took enough classes by the time I switched to making a minor So yeah, I was so I had the I knew I was gonna get this storytelling side of it from from journalism To me personally I always I wanted the business side of it As well so having that marketing side paired with the journalism side. There's a lot of crossover I mean even in social media. It's It's it's a business at the end of the day. So having that side for me I didn't know exactly where it would take me, but I knew that it would be a good mix of things To you know, launch my career eventually So I'm public relations. I was a public relations major and then my minors are marketing and Italian studies So I paired public relations with marketing because I think the two go pretty hand-in-hand Public relations. I love to talk and then marketing I have that creative side and then Italian studies because I studied abroad So I think it's just finding kind of like you're pairing and what you think is gonna mesh well together. I Was a Spanish minor which was kind of only helpful when I studied abroad, but it did bring me back to Spain two years later Also, just as a side note the Spanish program that I went back with was really great You do not need to speak Spanish and you do not need to have an education background to do it So if anyone's looking for something different to do when they graduate, I'm happy to talk about that But yeah, again, it's just finding what you're passionate about Because I mean English and Spanish don't usually go hand-in-hand, but it's something to talk about in every interview I get asked about my study abroad experiences. So it's nice to know that it's kind of just a universal talking point That's always relevant Hi, my name is Dante. I'm currently a sophomore here at Fairfield. This question's for Amanda. I noticed that you mentioned You were you had background in finding partners for both the Rangers and the Knicks for business and My question is did you notice any difference? Like between the partners you found between the Rangers and the Knicks or were they in general of both the simpler do Like both being at MSG. Yeah, it's a good question I think for a new business a lot is where the companies are spending So a lot of companies you'd find that, you know, they haven't really flirted with the NHL space yet Whereas vice versa a lot of companies are you know, they just did a deal with making this up the stars and the Bruins And then where their next team that they're coming to So there is a bit of a difference, especially the categories as well We could you could have a tech category partner that's filled on the Knicks side But it's open on the ranger side. So that also alters, you know, what the sellers are going out and prospecting So there is a bit of a difference But then we also have our we call them our marquee partners that touch all of our properties So chase chase the partner of the Rangers the Knicks radio city Westchester Knicks. We have a lot of properties Knicks gaming, you know, all of the properties like that So it depends there can be crossover For the most part, I think they're a bit separate though I have a question So what do you think the areas for growth are in your particular industries you talked about tick-tock, right? This is a new phenomenon that you need a new younger generation to be skilled and to be proficient in that maybe even five people You're people five years out of college are not ready to to engage in. What do you think are the next? Skill skill sets that people are going to need as they go into the job market in the coming years Yeah, I think tick-tock is a good example of just adaptability I think our generation is particularly good at that We're used to having new technologies that we need to adapt to Just something that came to my mind when you were saying that is that we're also in a really unique position of being kind of respected by Higher ups at our company because they understand their blind spots and they understand that they might not know technology as well as we do So I've actually got to go to a number of meetings that I guess in the past you wouldn't have been able to So there's a huge advantage to be had if you're just prepared you're thinking about where you can take your company You have new ideas if you happen to be fluent in tick-tock. That's very in demand right now at Verizon media But yeah, I guess it's really just being ready to adopt to the times Whenever we hear of a new social media platform. We're constantly downloading Experimenting with it seeing what other brands are doing. It's a lot of staying on top of your industry But yeah I mean talent management is a pretty niche industry and we're it's really sort of business to business in a way because we're working with other like arts organizations who we're trying to get to bring in our clients, but I would say that being on top of or being Open to looking at new ways of reaching your audiences. It's really a sort of marketing thing like to Target the people with the right messages And just be open to research on that. I think that's particularly important when it comes to you know, staying ahead of the game I think that's also why the core is so beneficial because while it may seem really annoying now that you have to take all these different classes It'll come to help you in the coming years because you'll have taken that philosophy class or that Chemistry class and all the different areas that you've been exposed to little by little. You'll find them useful someday Just off of what Maggie said you got to be nimble like you can you can read the job description get the job And it's like 90% gonna be a hundred other things that they never listed out so just being able to be nimble and adapt adaptability and solutions solution space is a big one I'm Matt tell us. I'm a journals and professor here on campus and one of you have taken my class up there Alexandra This question is kind of for Amanda. We're gonna be launching a new major here a major and a minor here at Fairfield University in the fall folks on sports media And and and the goal is hopefully to prepare students To go in any direction in sports media Everywhere from straight-up journals and a broadcast to media relations that type of stuff Given all that what what Are the skills that that students that want to go that route really need to work on Honing while they're while they're an undergraduate student. Yeah, I think part of it is like wrapping your head around that like sports You know the sports entertainment business is a 24-7 job So people say like I want to work in sports It's like well one of you watching the games because that's when you're gonna be working So I think it's not a skill, but it's a very you know just kind of Making that note, you know known I think also just you know Being good with people having those people skills going to find the solution Being nimble going out and learning learning on your own People are not you know gonna teach you things even when I took this job with the Knicks I was like, yeah, I know social, but you know, there's a hundred things I didn't know about social social But what can I do about that is you know, I can go look it up using the resources you have So I think just being aware of what the industry really is And then being able to adapt to the different types of work that you're going to get You're gonna have to be in a corporate setting in a meeting with Pepsi for instance as a brand sponsor And then you're gonna have to be with the players who are at the end of the day are 19 years old And you need to you know get a selfie video out of them So you have to wear a lot of hats. So I think understanding that you know, it's You you learn so much about like email etiquette and writing and stuff And then you also have to be charismatic with the people around you So I think just building those people skills and understanding, you know How to read a room and when to wear what hat am I wearing my corporate hat now or like my casual hat or you know Because at the end of the day when you're for social at least you're usually asking someone to do something So you want to be friends with them because it's not you know It's not always fun to have a camera on your face. So I think just Really evolving those people skills helps tremendously Over a little ahead of schedule, but not by much. This has really been helpful and I hope it's been helpful to all of you What I'd like to propose now we're still in the program is that you come up individual that you come on up and talk to the panelists and This is part of your networking They work in organizations that need all kinds of people So no matter what your major is These are now your allies your friends and they will be very helpful to you Before we turn to that. I just want to say something about A well-known actor you've heard of him Tom Hanks, right? We know who he is and recently he won a lifetime achievement award and he drilled it down to three things show up on time to come prepared and Three come with ideas and you've all been Talking about this that you need to have ideas and help that organization Become even better, right? So it's just something to keep in in mind I never thought I'd be quoting an actor, but there we go So please come on up. Don't be shy and at least shake their hand and thank them for Coming in chatting with you this evening