If you're looking for an opportunity to go after a degree in communication, UC's program offers various routes for you to find your calling.
Whether you're interested in a career in public relations, event planning, human resources or politics, this program provides the foundational course work for finding your path.
UC's communication program, offered through the College of Arts and Sciences, was established more than 30 years ago, and it has seen continuous growth throughout the major.
Professor of communication Steven Fuller graduated from UC's program in 2001 and began teaching in the program not long after. Fuller's career has seen him around UC often, as well as working on other projects outside of the program, and he has found that graduating helped him be ready for a job straight out of college.
"I think the advantage of a communication degree is that you learn specific skills and specific theories, and you are equipped to enter the workforce and get jobs and be very successful in those jobs," he said.
"We have lots of students who are going through our internship program and our co-op program and get really good job experience that they then translate into getting a job right out of college."
UC's communication program offers opportunities for training and working, even while you are still in college.
"We have multiple certificates that will help train you, as well as an internship program and co-op program. There's also a lot of student groups, some of which are specifically PR focused, where you take on actual clients in the real world and do actual work for them," he says.
"There's all sorts of opportunities to get trained while you're here so that when you graduate, you're ready to hit the workforce running."
Students have seen this experience pay off. Third-year student Kiersten Hofmann says that she came to UC to improve her public speaking skills, and now feels ready for what the workforce throws at her.
First-year students have the option to join a learning community, which help students transition to college by putting them in groups with other students in their major. Hofmann said that her learning community was one of the best classes she took during her time at UC.
"My learning community was the most impactful class I've taken because, to this day, I'm still very close friends with so many people from it," Hoffman said. "All the people that I met there, including my peer leader, were awesome. I can still ask her questions if I have any, too."
For those majoring in communication, you can pick between Introduction to Effective Speaking or Business Communication. From there, students will take Introductions to Interpersonal Communication, Rhetorical Theory, and Communication Theory.
After that, students have a wide variety of research methods and electives to choose from, some of which include Organizational Diversity, Media & Public Opinion, Environmental Communication, and Leadership Communication.
The communication program offers several different classes and opportunities so students can pick the career path that best suits them. Students will also complete a capstone in their junior or senior year.
A degree in communication can lead to a large variety of career pathways. Students from the program also have opportunities in the areas of law and business. Some of the areas that graduates have gone on to work in include:
- Public relations
- Event planning
- Human resources
- Marketing
- Sales
- Legislators
- Broadcasting
- Fundraising/management
Alyssa Wallen is a 2015 UC grad with a bachelor's in communication and public relations. Once a brand manager and senior associate, she is now a corporate communications manager at Amazon. For Wallen, she found that UC has a lot of help in finding your calling, especially within the broadness of being a communication major.
"There are so many career paths that you can take with the communication degree, and it really opened up my scope to be more involved in corporate communication. That was the guidance that I had from faculty to be able to personalize my curriculum to kind of fit I wanted to do," she said.
