Marketing Communications Specialist

I work on the Marketing Communications team at Northern Illinois Food Bank, where my main responsibilities are storytelling, social media, branding and messaging, and materials development.

Writing and design make up 99% of my job. For design, I create a lot of flyers, posters, newsletters, and social media graphics. Writing is a LOT more extensive – my work in this area ranges from blog posts, social media copy, and internal marketing materials to talking points, video scripts, brand guidelines, key messages, and both short & long-form stories.

After graduation, I moved to the Czech Republic to spend ten months as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at two secondary schools in the Eastern Bohemia region. When my Fulbright grant ended, I moved back to the Chicago area and began a one-year AmeriCorps VISTA term with Northern Illinois Food Bank. Immediately following the end of my VISTA year, I joined the Food Bank full-time as part of the Marketing Communications team.

The many opportunities to workshop different pieces of writing. For one, workshops helped me learn how to give and receive thoughtful critique and also clearly taught me to distinguish between critique and criticism. The modules were really impactful as well, because I was able to experiment in different genres and styles, gain more skill with interviewing and long-form writing (thanks, Magazine Writing!), and learn to incorporate multimedia elements into my work. Lastly, the writing faculty's emphasis on purpose, audience, and context affects the work I do each and every day. For me (and I'm sure for a lot of other people, too), nothing exists in a bubble; every piece of writing or design is not only handled by multiple people with individual perspectives and needs, but is also intended for many distinct audiences. Knowing how to customize a written or visual product makes the creation process much easier, and the end result much more effective than it would be otherwise.

Write as much as you can. Don't be intimidated by unfamiliar genres, and take at least one class that makes you uncomfortable. Consider submitting to publications like fishladder, The Lanthorn, and The Rapidian. Learn to be flexible with style – not only will doing so help you grow your portfolio, but it'll also create more opportunities in the future. Visit the Writing Center, because EVERYONE can benefit from peer review. Remember that sometimes corrections and critique from other people can be just a matter of style and opinion. Embrace your crummy first drafts; you can always revise later, but you can't revise something you never wrote in the first place because you didn't want it to be “bad.”

Writing can sometimes feel like a really broad degree or like it's not a particularly specialized skill. But there is immense and incredible value in not only the writing major at GVSU, but also in writing as a discipline – it's SO important to many areas of your life. And once you find where your passions and interests intersect with writing, you'll be amazed at the personal and professional possibilities you can generate!