When the student becomes the teacher

When Casey Wilson ‘14 graduated from Malone, she never imagined she would be returning so soon to teach COMM 377: Web Design and Social Media, a course that was crucial in helping her prepare for a career after graduation. 

“I'm so excited to be teaching this course,” Wilson said. “Working in digital marketing is something I love, and I hope I don't scare students off by how excited I am. What I love about digital marketing is that it's a good mix of left brain and right brain.”

Wilson graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts with a concentration in public relations and a minor in marketing. While at Malone, she wrote for the Aviso, took various internships in the Canton area, and went on a service-learning trip to China in 2014. 

In addition to teaching this course, Wilson currently works at Delta Media Group based in Canton, a job that she has had for almost two years. She attributes a large part of her success in finding a career that she loves to her Malone professors. 

“I cannot say enough nice things about the Malone faculty. One of the reasons I wanted to attend a smaller university was because I knew I wouldn't just be a number,” she said. “The Communication Arts Department was great about helping me find internships while I was in college and job opportunities even after I graduated. So when a professor sent me a Facebook message saying, ‘Hey, you took this class, you're doing this work every day, want to teach it?’ I was in!”

With this being her first time teaching this course, Wilson hopes that she will be able to share her love for the work in this field with her students in a special way.

“Sharing my passion for digital marketing in a classroom setting similar to where I was first introduced to it is an absolute joy,” she said. “I never thought I would go from student to teacher, but here we are. Who knows, maybe a student this semester will realize it's a career that they are interested in, too!”