少女福利

Back to All Featured, Political Science Spotlights

2015

Current job title and employer and briefly describe what it is you do: I am the Digital Marketing Manager, Email and Automation for Doctors Without Borders/M茅decins Sans Fronti猫res (MSF). I鈥檓 responsible for managing the digital marketing strategy for the email and SMS programs at MSF-USA. In this role, I manage a team and several vendors to set a strategy around acquiring, cultivating, and converting donors. This includes choosing content and drafting marketing materials, managing the audience targeting, building out emails, SMS messages, and donation forms in the marketing platform, and leading data analysis on campaign performance.

Academic experience at 少女福利 help prepare you for your career: Saint Mike鈥檚 really shaped me as a whole person, which I鈥檝e carried with me throughout my career. Academically, I learned how to look at problems through multiple lenses and think critically about potential solutions. This has served me in all areas of my life, but certainly in various points during my career as both a marketer and a community organizer. Additionally, my experience in the Political Science department and with the Global Studies program gave me the chance to explore a good balance of domestic and international policy and theory, which has carried over into my current job where I consistently have to frame global problems in a local context to appeal to an American donor base.

Favorite memory or class from your time studying at St. Mike鈥檚: It鈥檚 hard to choose a favorite memory because I really loved all 4 years of my time at St. Mike鈥檚. One of my favorite classes was probably American Foreign Policy with Prof. Ayres. To this day, I still think and talk about some of the themes and authors that were covered in those classes. I also loved Prof. Kirby鈥檚 Otherness and Marginalization. It played a huge role in shaping who I am and how I think about my interactions with other people. Over the course of my time at Saint Mike鈥檚 I think I took 4 classes with Prof. Kirby and I eventually went to Guyana with her and a few other former students after graduating.

Translated your volunteer experience at Saint Michael鈥檚 into giving back to your community after graduation: Both my experience with MOVE and my classwork shaped my post-grad community involvement. For example, I鈥檝e worked and volunteered for multiple political campaigns, for candidates that are fighting for the same values that were such an important part of the St. Mike鈥檚 community. When I first moved to NYC I worked as a community organizer for VOCAL-NY, an organization that builds power among low-income people who are directly impacted by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness. I organized specifically around expanding prevention and treatment services for people living with Hep-C in NY State and working with the harm reduction community to find a public health approach to the overdose crisis. I learned about the power of community organizing from Professor Grover鈥檚 American Democracy class, the importance of public health approaches to issues like HIV/AIDs that impact a person鈥檚 whole life in Professor Siplon鈥檚 classes, and lessons about the importance of passing the mic to marginalized communities in Professor Kirby鈥檚 Otherness and Marginalization class.

Other information you would like to share or advice for incoming or current students: I definitely had a vision of where my career would take me when I chose to major in Political Science. While I have worked on both political campaigns and as a community organizer, I鈥檓 currently in a marketing role. I would say, when you鈥檙e searching for jobs after college, stay open to possibilities as they come your way. 5 years out of college, I鈥檓 not doing what I thought I would be doing, but I love my job and I feel like I鈥檓 making a real difference in the world and continuing to fight for the values that were instilled in me during my time at St. Mike鈥檚. Also, take classes that you鈥檙e interested in! I didn鈥檛 plan on minoring in philosophy, but I loved my intro class with Prof. Standen, so I just kept taking more and before I knew it I had a minor. I use the critical thinking skills I learned in those classes every day.