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Rachel, a marketing and management student at the Charlton College of Business, talks about how faculty mentorship and an internship in the defense industry led her to discover her passion and land her dream job.
Engaging in research with faculty
I’ve always found celebrity endorsements interesting and I wanted to see how much a company can really make from the promotion. My honors thesis, "PUMA Company and the Impact of Celebrity Endorsements," relates to marketing. I studied the effects of celebrity promotion on the company PUMA.
I worked with Dr. Nora Barnes on my research. It was great, she let me do all of my own independent research and offered a lot of guidance when I got stuck or wanted an industry professional view. The research was a lot of fun. I got to work on something I felt passionate about. While the coursework we do at school reflects our major, I did a deep dive into a subject that I have not been taught. And when I interviewed at Raytheon I mentioned my honors thesis to them and they were impressed.
Inventing my future
I worked at Raytheon in Marlborough MA. I worked under a wonderful team of industry professionals in air traffic control. I learned at least 20 new things every single day I was there. I never would have thought I would have ended up in the Defense Industry because I was always passionate about Fashion and Cosmetics. I have been opened up to the DoD industry as well as learning a lot more about air traffic control and its rich history.
I worked as a program management intern and I saw how the managers worked with all of the different disciplines such as engineering (software & hardware), finance, supply chain, and export/import. I also saw how the program managers functioned from day to day and I had the opportunity to do some of the work too!
The internship benefited me because it opened up my eyes to a whole new industry that I ended up being very passionate about. Following the end of the internship, I received a job offer. I will be working as a project management liaison. I’ll start in the summer of 2019.
Pursuing on-campus leadership activities
I work at the Office of Admissions at UMass Dartmouth and I am a lead ambassador, so I manage a group of five ambassadors. This includes co-planning for events, handling schedules, and helping the daily operations of the admissions office. This experience has made me more confident with managerial roles as well as working in teams.
Performing community service work
I also am on the Love Your Melon e-board. Love Your Melon is an organization that sells beanies and apparel and 50% of the proceeds go to their non-profit partners who support pediatric cancer.