Jan. 7, 2021

When students graduate from our Master of Arts in Mass Communication program, some alumni choose to improve upon their skills to become better at their jobs, like First Sergeant in the United States Army, Kevin Doe Crowsyn.

Kevin, originally from Orange County, California, graduated with a bachelor’s in management from American Military University in 2010. Wanting to be the best in his field and stand out in the military community, and after hearing about our highly-ranked program, he decided he’d only apply to UF for graduate school.

“I figured if I was going to take the time and effort to go to grad school, I was only going to settle for the best,” Kevin said. “I wanted to make sure I had the best education and was best equipped to help my organization.”

He went through our Social Media program, graduated in 2017 and now works at US Army Recruiting Command where he is assigned to the 2nd Medical Recruiting Battalion. In this role, he helps oversee the Orlando Army Medical Recruiting Company, responsible for recruiting medical professionals for the US Army and Army Reserve, made up of six offices across Florida and Georgia. Kevin became First Sergeant of the Orlando Company in April 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to impact everything about our lives.

“It also greatly affected medical recruiting,” he said. “A large part of how the United States Army meets and recruits is through residency programs, through undergrad and grad schools as well as medical and dental schools. So, having that face-to-face interactions, at the University of Florida, you know, at our local hospitals, that’s a cornerstone of how we do business.”

With no other option other than to adjust, and with no specialized training in place for social media usage or virtual marketing, Kevin took his existing background and what he learned from his master’s degree to immediately implement a 90-day intensive training program for all six of his offices on proper social media usage. This included standardizing their presence across all platforms and conducting an extensive social media audit. It also involved ensuring all employees knew the demographics of each platform so they could effectively develop networks, get their message across and generate referrals for medical professionals in a convincing way to military leadership and in terms that are widely understood, not just in the military community.

“By doing that, within our first 90 days, we had almost a 200% increase in our social media following across all of our platforms,” Kevin said.

In part due to this strategy, the Orlando Army Medical Recruiting Company was recognized as the #1 medical recruiting company in the country for the 2020 fiscal year.

Along with the success he has had in his work, Kevin is proud that his master’s degree, aside from allowing him to get a promotion, gave him skills that affect something on such a large scale. 

“The second and third-order effects of what we’re doing and medical recruiting are going to ripple for years, you know, because of the people we are recruiting,” he said. “Some of them are already in the US Army Reserve in the fight against the COVID pandemic.”

For military professionals or individuals interested in doing communications for the military, Kevin suggests they consider UF CJC Online. He points out how his education was paid for by the Post 9-11 GI Bill, and how he and his classmates were able to use their degrees in unconventional ways. In addition, students can tap into the extensive Gator Nation alumni network long after they graduate. 

“I think what I’ve been doing can hopefully set an example and show other soldiers that they can set their sights high,” Kevin said. “They don’t have to settle for programs that are not at the top of their field.”

If you’d like to learn more about pursuing a degree with UF CJC Online, please visit our website at onlinemasters.jou.ufl.edu/ and follow us on social @UFCJConline

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Jan. 5, 2021

Students like Sarah Hughey, a 2020 Digital Strategy graduate of our Master of Arts in Mass Communication program, learn skills and develop a network that benefits their lives and careers after graduation.

Upon graduating from the University of Maryland in 2013, Sarah had just started a new job that offered education assistance. Not exactly sure what she wanted to do, she came across UF CJC Online after researching different schools.

“I was really excited because the curriculum would not only kind of help me learn about what I was currently doing at that job, but it would also teach me things that I never got a chance to learn in undergrad,” Sarah said. “Which I knew would help to make me, you know, a better digital practitioner, as well as just a better employee in the digital world all around.”

Once she decided to pursue her master’s with us, she distinctly remembers her first class ever, a copywriting course with Lisa Hope. This experience and all she learned from it made her confident that continuing with our program was the right decision for her.

Aside from graduating from our program with a 4.0 GPA, she credits much of her success to her instructors who are passionate about what they teach and helped her to be just as passionate about the subject matter. A proud memory she has with the program is when she was chosen as the leader of her capstone group.

“That was just again full circle because I came, you know, from the student who wasn’t even really sure if I wanted to be in this program to leading my capstone program and really demonstrating everything that all of us have learned, you know, in the past few years, and showing it to a client who genuinely loved it,” Sarah said.

Now, Sarah works at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. Her current employer saw the kind of work she did during her master’s program and wanted to learn more.

“I was able to show them a lot about what I do and what I learned honestly from the program because they were really looking for a digital specialist in terms of someone who really understood how to write for the internet, how to do social media copy and how to use analytics to inform strategy,” she said. “All three of those were things that, you know, I knew how to do before, but I have really refined through the work that I did in the program.”

Even now as an alumnus, despite not being on campus during her studies, Sarah enjoys the excitement that comes along with being a part of the Gator Nation. She also appreciates how passionate Gators are about learning and making a difference in the world. For those who may be considering going for their master’s with UF CJC Online, she suggests connecting with as many instructors and peers who you can go on to have meaningful relationships with and who you can go to for help long after you graduate.

If you’d like to learn more about pursuing a degree with UF CJC Online, please visit our website at onlinemasters.jou.ufl.edu/ and follow us on social @UFCJConline

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