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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Nov. 12, 2020

UF CJC Online students excel in and out of the classroom. We spoke with two of our students, Alyssa Varas, a Global Strategic Communication student from Miami, FL, and Ja’kari Clayton, a Public Interest Communication student from Naples, FL, about their experiences within our Master of Arts in Mass Communication Program, accomplishments so far, career goals and advice for prospective students.

Alyssa Varas

Alyssa graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in public relations in August 2020. When she entered UF for her undergraduate degree, she started as an agricultural major in the College of Agriculture and Life Science. After one semester of STEM courses, she switched her major, first to journalism, then to public relations, where she found like-minded peers who were equally excited about communications.

“I really liked being a part of a community in the J-School because there’s so many supportive, not only faculty and staff but also students that helped us all grow in our communication skills,” Alyssa said.

Her decision to pursue a graduate degree with UF CJC Online began during her time as an undergraduate student when she discovered our Combination Degree program that allowed her to receive her master’s in only a few years. 

“I began my sophomore year in the Digital Strategy specialization after attending PRSSA’s International Conference where we heard a lot from former government leaders and people working in the public affairs arena,” Alyssa said.

Now, Alyssa works as a graduate student assistant for UF CJC Online where she helps our admissions team answer emails about our program and the application process while she works towards her degree. 

During her time at UF, her proudest moment was receiving the 2020 PRSA Foundation Chester Berger Scholarship for Excellence in Public Relations.

“I couldn’t have done it without the guidance and support of a few of my graduate professors who wrote me letters, and one of them actually was one of the PRSA members who founded that scholarship, and he’s now working in the college in the Global Strategic Communication program,” she said. 

In the future, she hopes to find a career in the public affairs or political arena or in corporate communications in a multinational organization in her home city.

“If someone was on the fence about pursuing a master’s degree with the UF CJC Online program, I would say to them that the master’s program is filled with professors and resources that provide even more value than you thought in your undergraduate career and that will allow you to grow in this profession,” she said.

Ja’kari Clayton

Ja’kari graduated from Florida International University in 2016 where he majored in Liberal Arts. His journey to become a Gator within our program started after not having a firm grasp on what he wanted to do after graduating from FIU. Ja’kari decided to dedicate himself to a year of service, so he enrolled in City Year and moved to Orlando. There, he was tasked with helping middle school students academically, economically, personally and socially. 

“After a year of doing that, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Ja’kari said. “So, I ended up working at the Boys and Girls Club of Orlando for another year as an after school counselor, and during that time, I really started to understand what it was that I thought was my purpose in the word and what type of impact I wanted to have.”

After deciding to pursue communications because of his love for writing and the power of words, he applied to UF for graduate school. The Public Interest Communication specialization started during his second year, and with input from his advisors, he realized the specialization aligned with his long-term goals.

“I was like, ‘This really taps into what I want to do, which is create sustainable change through resources in these lower socioeconomic communities,’” he said.

During his time in graduate school, his greatest accomplishment is being in the program in general. UF was the only school he applied to, and he’s the only one in his family to think about getting a higher education degree.

“Just the fact that I made it to this point,” Ja’kari said. “I mean, everything else kind of pales in comparison to that.”

As a student, he now works as a research assistant at the Center for Public Interest Communications, and he is most excited about completing his capstone project on a topic that greatly interests him for one of his current classes and seeing it all come together. After graduating from our program this year, his first goal is to join a local nonprofit that’s tasked with helping a specific demographic with a certain issue and then fully understanding what it is that those people need and want.

“Once I think I had that experience, I would like to go maybe the federal or state route and create initiatives and policies that can help specific people,” he said. “I feel like a lot of politicians, a lot of stakeholders and just a lot of people in power, they want to create all these guidelines, plans and goals, but they don’t really understand the communities that they’re trying to help.”

For those who may be considering our program, Ja’kari notes the importance of reminding yourself that you deserve everything you’re trying to accomplish. Also, even if you hit bumps in the road, never forget why you’re pursuing your degree.

“Sometimes, I think UF can become a little bit overwhelming, and sometimes you may want to crawl back to the familiar, but that’s not going to help you, and that’s not going to help the people that you intend to help,” Ja’kari said. “The second piece of advice I would offer is to make sure you have a support system. You have to surround yourself with a community because that’s the only way we can truly grow and accomplish what it is that we’re supposed to accomplish.”

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

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Oct. 5, 2020

Mastering the Statement of Purpose

Applying to graduate school can be daunting. After determining the school or program you’d like to attend, application processes, including letters of recommendation, transcripts and test scores, can be difficult to navigate. The Statement of Purpose is one element that can seem especially intimidating.

To make writing a Statement of Purpose easier to tackle, we sought advice from the people who read them at UF CJC Online. Tom Kelleher, Ph.D., associate dean at the Division of Graduate Studies and Research, and Evan Kropp, Ph.D., director at UF CJC Online, walked us through our program’s admissions process and best practices for writing statements of purpose based on their own experiences.

Navigating the Graduate School Application Process

Both Dr. Kelleher and Dr. Kropp explain that UF CJC Online Master’s Program is a highly-ranked, competitive program with a comprehensive application process.

“On our website, we provide a list of required documents that applicants need to submit,” Dr. Kropp said. “Applicants log on to our online system to submit their initial application form, and then they work with our admissions and enrollment coordinators to submit any remaining materials.”

Once all required materials are received, including, but not limited to, letters of recommendation, transcripts and a Statement of Purpose, those files are forwarded to the admissions committee who make decisions on a rolling basis.

While a transcript highlights grades and letters of recommendation tell us how others view an applicant, the Statement of Purpose is a prospective student’s chance to speak directly to the admissions committee about their qualifications, interests and goals.

“We admit students based on their credentials and their ability to succeed within the program,” Dr. Kropp said. “Once the admissions committee makes a decision, it is confirmed by our admissions office, and letters are sent out via email to applicants notifying them of our decision.”

Personalize Your Statement of Purpose

When reading statements of purpose, Dr. Kelleher, Dr. Kropp and the rest of the admissions committee are looking for certain characteristics to identify an ideal candidate.

“We are looking for a match,” Dr. Kelleher said. “We want to know, not just are you among the most competitive applicants for this program, but also, is our program going to be a good match for your needs.”

After clearly highlighting your personal and academic journey and goals, it’s a good idea to put a little bit of your personality into it to set yourself apart. Dr. Kelleher’s son, who’s in the process of applying to college, received advice on college essay writing that he believes is also useful when drafting a Statement of Purpose—If somebody were to read your essay who knows you, would they know it was you who wrote it, or would it sound like some other college student or any other applicant?

Equally important, Dr. Kelleher believes editing is key. Make sure you have someone proofread your work for grammar and consistency. A Statement of Purpose is also a one to two page writing sample for you to demonstrate your writing and communications skills and how those skills will transfer successfully into the program.

Dr. Kropp looks to use the Statement of Purpose to get a better sense of a candidate beyond what can be gathered from a resume, transcripts and letters of recommendation, especially any gaps.

“Often, students will feel that, if they don’t meet a minimum requirement for admissions to the program, that they are automatically disqualified,” Dr. Kropp said. “We don’t automatically disqualify people. The Statement of Purpose is a great opportunity for applicants who feel one or more parts of their application materials may be lacking in some way to speak directly to the admissions committee and explain the reasons why there may be a blemish on their record.”

Learn from Experience

Both Dr. Kelleher and Dr. Kropp wrote statements of purpose for their master’s degrees before working at UF, so their advice partially stems from being on the other side of the process.

Dr. Kelleher remembers making a case in his statement for why he thought it was important for him to go to graduate school and what he wanted to get out of the program. He made sure to include how his personal goals, professional goals and what the program had to offer were aligned.

When Dr. Kropp was writing his Statement of Purpose, he recalls being nervous about meeting all of the criteria and making sure his statement was free of any errors. He later worked with a faculty adviser during his studies who was one of the people who accepted him into the graduate program. The adviser told him in passing that it was his other application materials and definitely not his Statement of Purpose that got him accepted.

“I thought it was kind of funny that he said that because I felt my statement was very strong,” Dr. Kropp said. “I went back and I reread my statement. I had used my statement to explain why, as an older, non-traditional student, I had decided to pursue a career first and then return to school.”

Dr. Kropp’s former adviser had an expectation for the statement to focus on his research interests or key issues in the field. Now, while reviewing application packages, Dr. Kropp looks for statements more like his own that highlight an applicant’s personal journey and why they’d like to attend the program to further their career goals.

“My takeaway from that experience was that despite a statement’s prompt, different individuals working to evaluate applications will have different expectations and will look for different things,” Dr. Kropp said. “It’s why we have multiple people reading and reviewing, and then in instances that are not clear-cut, we have committees that meet to discuss applicants.”

Dr. Kropp adds it may be beneficial to reach out to admissions personnel to get a better sense for what they’re looking for within a Statement of Purpose.

With this insight in mind and as you begin or continue to draft your Statement of Purpose, Dr. Kelleher acknowledges that it may be tempting to be excessively humble, but you need to overcome not wanting to self-promote. It’s also important to approach guidelines creatively so your statement stands out from the pile.

“We want to see people personalizing their statements and we want to see which direction people go with it,” Dr. Kropp said. “Don’t overthink it and let your personality shine through. We want to know there’s a real person on the other end of the paperwork.”

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