Meet Maddison.

Maddison isn’t the average Communication Management student. He writes responses to this interview from Ravenna, an Italian beachside city. He recently relocated there from Greece, where he was playing professional volleyball. However, his story starts on a different beach; Hawaii. Maddison was raised Honolulu, Hawaii, which heavily influenced his love for sports and adventure. When it came time for him to go to college, he made his way to USC for a change of scenery.

After four years of studying business administration as an undergraduate, unfortunate circumstances lead him to apply for the program: “To be honest, and overly cliché, I didn’t pick the Communication Management program, it picked me…. In September of 2012, during the start of my senior year studying at Marshall, my fourth year playing volleyball at USC, I injured my right leg which ended up becoming a season ending injury. I thought my volleyball career was over, that I would graduate from Marshall that coming May and unfortunately be done at USC. But the opportunity to take a red shirt year presented itself, so that I could sit out from playing volleyball my senior year, graduate from Marshall that May, but then apply to a Masters program at USC and play volleyball for one more year.”

Maddison goes on to explain that he had never considered getting his Master’s degree before. However, when the opportunity presented itself, he became steadily more excited about it. He could have applied for any Master’s program at USC, but he opted for Communication Management. When asked why, he said there were a range of reasons: “An entrepreneurship class I took my Junior year was a class about learning outside of the class room just as much as inside it, it encouraged students to go outside their comfort zone, pursue an idea they had, and that was exactly what I was looking for. From what I had heard from friends of mine was that communication management program was very entrepreneurial. That was about learning through creating and that’s what intrigued me so much. My inspiration to study communication didn’t only start and end before I began the program, but it continued to grow during and after every class I took.”

Not only has the program sparked a love for communication for him, but it has also given him the freedom to pursue other things he loves, such as being creative and playing volleyball. He will return to USC in the Fall to finish his degree. As for what he will do after that, he simply says, “Good question.”