Jennifer Fry, MA ’12

Teaching & Learning

As my two years in the UD-MA-COMM program came to a close this spring, I began looking forward to life beyond campus, confident that my time here has provided me with a unique set of experiences.

Leaving UD with “MA” in hand, I plan to move into social media coordination and similar public relations work at a small agency or organization, and while plenty of PR students-turned-pros have had internship experience, how many can say they created and maintained complete social media strategies for two organizations on their own? Both the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition (DBCC) and Careerminds have minimal staffing, and because of that, I was trusted with to responsibility of working alone, without much direct instruction from superiors and without any assistance from fellow interns. I have these internships to thank for my passion for social media. After being totally immersed in the strategies and platforms, I really found my direction.

How many can say they’ve independently taught a total of nine sections of a college-level course? As a teaching assistant in the COMM department, I was tossed into this exact position head-first, and coming out of the experience, I found I’ve gained presentation and leadership qualities that I didn’t have before.

And lastly, how many can say they’ve graduated from the UD-MA-COMM program? Not having gone to UD as an undergraduate, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from the faculty and the other students, but I was delighted to find a small group of fellow graduate students and a welcoming faculty and staff. The size of the department is enough to make a student feel at ease; even coming from a fairly small undergraduate institution, it’s nice to walk into the COMM hallway and know the people in the offices.

The reason I decided to return to school after having earned my Bachelor’s degree in 2008 was to add useful skills and knowledge to my repertoire, not to start over, and even after only two years, I feel as though I’ve gained so much that I could never have found elsewhere.