While many of you had your sights set on graduate school for years, maybe even most of your life, I did not know that it would have any place in my life until two days before the USC Fall 2014 semester started…

I spent my undergraduate career at UCLA, planning on double-majoring in psychology and communications. Applying to a graduate program was not even on my radar, but when my counselors suggested that I pursue a master’s degree at USC instead, I thought, why not? I ended up graduating a year early with my BA in psychology, and applied to the grad program one month after the deadline. I took the GREs the next week…and THANKFULLY, I got in!

With less than a year left in the MCM program, it’s so strange to look back and think on how far I’ve come. While the majority of my undergraduate career was spent directly on the front lines of the entertainment industry – walking the runway for LA Fashion Week, attending endless casting calls, commercial shoots – I decided to jump behind the scenes for my graduate career. I am currently working as a digital marketing assistant at NBC Universal and absolutely LOVE it. Any free time I have is spent blogging about my other passions – food, fashion, and traveling. I’m a HUGE foodie, and especially love reviewing new hotspots around the city whenever I can find the time.

Balancing working full-time, with classes, with trying to have a social life is tough, but I have found that the graduate experience is so much different than I imagined it to be. Gone are the days of pulling all-nighters to study for exams and finals…instead, my life is full of papers, presentations, and a lot of group work. As I progress throughout this program, my eyes continue to be opened to the importance of communication and teamwork. We interact and communicate so much in our everyday lives, and sometimes, we don’t even register it.

Communication management, to me, is a story that is yet to be told. Through our studies and the utilization of what we are learning, we can effectively communicate that story to the world.

CELINE LINARTE (MCM 2016)