If I could sum up my college experience at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in one word, it would be: fast.  I have grown up here, and Wilmington has become my home away from home.

My High School Graduation 2008

When I came to Wilmington in the Fall of 2008, I was a shy and naive teenager, fresh out of private school.  My wardrobe was tiny from having to wear uniforms to school from the age of five, and the only thing that I was certain about was that I was so happy to be at the beach.  I have always been an ocean girl and from a young age, my best family vacations involved me, my pink ruffled bikini, and a bucket full of shells.  I knew that as much uncertainty that was occurring in my life, I could rely on the waves to keep crashing on the sand.

A year later, I finally chose my major and decided that my dream of becoming a wedding planner could become a reality with a Communication Studies degree.  All of my professors were so helpful, encouraging me to take the right courses and giving me the tools to be successful, not only within the major, but also in my future career.

College Graduation May 12, 2012

One professor in particular truly made a life changing impact on my college career.  I have taken almost every class she taught, including Integrated Marketing Communication and Public Relations, and have learned incredible lessons not only about communication studies, brand marketing, and social media, but also in how to be successful in the fast approaching “real world”.  I will always remember the day that I first met this professor.  I told her that I wanted to be a wedding and event planner and she giggled while telling me that I had a long way to go before I could say that.  She pushed me to work harder and encouraged me to get involved and get experience so that I would be prepared.  Dr. Jeanne Persuit is an incredible professor and her current and future students could not be more lucky to be learning from the best.  There is no way to express how thankful I am to have been in Dr. Persuit’s classes (and, no, this is not because I have a GIANT project due Thursday – promise!).  But I do know that she will be reading this post, so I’ll say it loud and clear: Thank you for absolutely everything!

During the past four years, I have taken classes, learned amazing life-lessons, and blossomed into a confident, social, and successful woman.  I became involved.  I joined a sorority, made the best of friends, and I even survived COM 400.  And now that I am embarking on an incredible new journey known as adulthood, I still know that one thing will always be certain: the waves will always crash, over and over, on the sand on Wrightsville Beach.

Cheers to the next step!

Love always, Christina Stevenson

UNCW has been my home away from home for the past four years.  The relationships I have made here will be the ones I cherish forever.  Friends and professors taught me more about myself than I think I’ll ever know.  As graduation slowly approaches and the stress of finals suddenly begins to fade, I hope to feel more relaxed and prepared for the world out ahead.  Although it is scary to enter the real world, I will keep my Communication Studies professors in the back of my head. I will carry COM400’s advice and skills with me through each future endeavor I face.  I can now reflect on what I have learned, completely focus on myself, my own goals and how I can achieve them.   I never thought that during freshman orientation I would be walking across the stage as a Communication Studies major wanting to pursue a career in public relations nor did I think it would happen so fast.  I am confident in myself and the things I have accomplished in Wilmington.  I know I have been given the skills I need to reach success.

I faced experiences that have challenged and tested who I am as a person.  I have lost loved ones, moved to California for a year on my own, started new relationships and ended bad ones, and I put myself out there to build my professional portfolio.   It’s crazy that it all comes down to one day, one day where all those trials and tribulations will all come together and show who I have become. It is a moment where I can sit with my peers and laugh about the moments we dreaded.  From COM200 probes to COM400 portfolio presentations, we know we shared those times together and helped each other get to this very moment.  We will be able to celebrate the new beginnings we face and wish each other the best.

Without my UNCW experience and the relationships that I have built among the Department of Communication Studies, I have no clue where in the heck I would be today.  So, for those of you itching to get out of school, take a moment and look around and do not take your college years for granted, for they are the most important years of your life to discover yourself. Cheers to my fellow seniors and what is yet to come!!!

Leanna Marshall

When I first arrived at UNCW in the fall of 2009, I had plans to study film, graduate in four years, and fulfill my dream of being a Hollywood director making summer blockbusters about robots and aliens. Needless to say, that never happened. I added on a Communication Studies degree halfway through my freshman semester, and once I took my first Film Studies class, I realized that what I thought I wanted to do wasn’t what I really wanted to do. I quickly dropped film and focused on Communication Studies. I took it one step further and picked up Business as a second major with a concentration in Marketing.

I had the mindset that all of these requirements would be completed in four years. However, I found out during my advising session this semester that while it was possible to graduate in May of 2013 with two degrees, it would be packed, busy, and difficult. Another option was to graduate with only a Communication Studies degree and graduate early in December of 2012. I had a decision to make: should I drop my Business degree and graduate ahead of my class, or grit my teeth and struggle through a non-stop senior year?

I asked around, looking for advice, trying to find someone who had or was currently in a similar situation. Unfortunately, no one I talked to could relate. It became a haunting thought, knowing that I would have to make a life changing decision on my own without receiving advice from anyone who had made that same decision. There was one place I did find my answers though: Online.

I wrote a short submission about my degree dilemma and posted to a few online forums. This is where I found my answer.  Users from all over the world sent me responses with their personal testimonies regarding their decision to stay in school and earn a second degree. What I found to be even more fascinating is the medium that I was using portrayed the same concept that I was studying: Communication.

Recently in our IMC II class we finished reading Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. I have never been able to relate more to a book than after consulting with strangers on the Internet about college decisions. Everything that I had studied and learned was being exemplified right in front of me.

After posting, Googling, tweeting, and searching, I came to the conclusion I should stay in school as long as I can and take my time to earn my second degree. My consultants on the web advised me that they never regretted staying to earn another degree, and that there is absolutely no rush to get out into the “real world”. My decision was made. I wouldn’t graduate early and I wouldn’t take on too much. Instead, I added on an extra semester to balance out my time and my required classes, making my graduation date Fall of 2013. Looking back, I believe it will be one of the best decisions I could have ever made, and it would not have been possible without the “everyone” of the Internet.

- Hunter Wilson

College is an experience that has the unique ability to change you over the course of four years. You have four years to make mistakes, meet new people, take classes you love (or hate), get involved, study abroad, get an internship, and find out who you are under the thoughtful guise of higher education. For me, UNCW has been a place of learning and growing. A place where I have come to recognize who I am as a person and what matters most to me as a student, a friend and a person.

I quickly found my home in the Department of Communication Studies. One of my favorite things was that they really made you work for your spot in the major; I spent half of COM 200 in a quantitative research haze wondering what in the world I was doing looking at bumper stickers in the parking lot outside Randall Library. The major can be intimidating at first, but as you graduate from Pre-COM advising and pass COM 200, you begin to find your niche within the department. I found mine during the spring semester of my sophomore year in Dr. Jeanne Persuit’s Intro to IMC class. I entered the class with trepidation, having absolutely no clue what Integrated Marketing Communication meant, but also with an open mind as to where the semester might take me.

I gobbled up every book Dr. Persuit fed us; from Groundswell to Branded Nation, I didn’t even mind being woken up at 6:00 am by Seth Godin because I was genuinely interested in what his blog would teach me that day. The individual IMC plan which functioned as our final assignment sealed the deal for me; I had finally found my niche. Now, almost two years later, I am wrapping up my UNCW career with Dr. Persuit’s IMC II class and I am not at all surprised to find myself here. College is a gift; a present that your future self gives you when you’re 18 years old and have no clue what you’re going to do with your life. Whether you slowly unwrap it or tear through the paper and ribbons, what you find inside is completely up to you.

By: Kacy Cox

I’ve experienced 17 last days of school. 17 times I’ve walked out of a large building with a smile on my face knowing that I had 3 months of freedom ahead of me. 3 months to play with my friends, 3 months to stay up late, 3 months to wear nothing more professional than board shorts and an old pair of Rainbows. And somehow, all 17 times have managed to be just as special as the one before. There are only a handful of experiences that are so special to me that I approached them with the same enthusiasm when I was 5 as I did when I was 21, the last day of school was one of them. This next last day of school will probably be my last, and I meet it with a certain level of apprehension. This is the first time I have ever experienced a last day of school without knowing when I would return to school. This is the first time I’ve ever gone into summer without teachers or parents telling me that I need to read a couple books over summer or look over my notes in order to keep the information fresh in my mind. This is the first time I’ve ever ended a school year without looking over all my school supplies and making a mental note of what I would need to buy before the next school year began.

It’s ironic that this last day of school makes me nervous for the exact reasons that I loved all of the other last days of school. This last day of school represents levels of freedom I have never experienced before. I can pack up and leave the city, the state, or even the country and in 3 months no one will be sending me emails about assignments I have missed, no one will be calling my parents to find out why I haven’t returned. I am about to enter purgatory. This begins a time where I am not employed full-time and am no longer a student. Lord knows I can’t fill out any surveys until I find a job, I’ll look like a bum.

I know nothing about what the rest of my life will bring. Hopefully there will be a wife involved, and kids, yea, kids would be nice, oh, and margaritas! on a beach, a Caribbean beach, no, you need a lot of money for that, maybe just margaritas on a quaint American beach.

As this time approaches, I’m nervous, I’m apprehensive, I’m anxious. But no matter what anyone says, I ain’t scurd.

-Bryce Koonts

Well, everyone, here we are at the end of yet another semester. We are all about to start pulling out hair from finals stress and all those last minute projects. But, contrary to what many people think, I have all of my ducks in a row. My notes are all put away from the semester, all projects are finished or on their way to being finished, and I am ready for graduation. What I don’t have, though, is that perfect dream job; I have been job hunting and sending resumes all over the USA but have yet to find a job. I have become discouraged and scared that the only thing I will get to do after graduation is go back to working as a CSR for a small-time franchise. But what I seem to keep forgetting, is that one little thing that everyone tells me, or at least what all my teachers are telling me: everyone wants to help out a recent college graduate.

In today’s world, you need to remember every resource you have and use it to your advantage. I have been very fortunate to have associations who have seen my work and hired me to do some brand identity for them as a freelance graphic designer. I also have been given the great honor of being asked to present at ComicCon in San Diego this summer as a professional. This is a big honor and one of the best things to happen to me, because of the people I will meet and get to network with in my profession, who have the possibility of offering me a job. So, from the fact that I now have experience in my field and have been given a chance to network with the big names in my profession, I know I will get to work as a graphic designer for a company one day. It might take some patience and getting my name out there some more, but I will network and get some more experience so that I can get my dream job working for Pixar Animation Studios and have my name in their next big movie.

By Dorothy Conley