From Graphic Design to Digital Marketing: Caroline Rathbun's Graduate School Journey

Graduate school is more than just an extension of your undergraduate education. It’s an intricate journey that demands dedication, strategic planning, and a deep understanding of one's personal and professional goals. In a recent episode of the "Victor's in Grad School" podcast, host Dr. Christopher Lewis sat down with Caroline Rathbun, a communication and digital marketing specialist, to discuss her path from undergraduate studies to a successful career in digital marketing. Caroline’s story is both inspiring and enlightening for anyone considering or currently navigating through graduate school.

The Decision to Pursue Graduate School

Caroline’s journey began with an undergraduate degree in design and visual communications from the University of Michigan Flint. Like many graduates, she was in the process of figuring out her career aspirations. While she appreciated her field, she realized that graphic design alone didn’t fulfill her professional ambitions.

This epiphany led Caroline to leave her first job and venture into freelancing, allowing her to explore different facets of the communication field. It was through freelancing, especially her projects with prominent organizations in Flint, that she discovered her passion for digital marketing and social media management. Recognizing the shift from traditional to digital media, she decided it was time to pursue a master's degree in strategic communications to advance her career.

Choosing the Right Graduate Program

Selecting a graduate program is a pivotal step. Caroline's decision to enroll in Michigan State University’s strategic communications master’s program was influenced by several factors. She conducted thorough research, prioritizing programs that offered a robust curriculum and flexibility. Michigan State’s online program stood out for its reputation and comprehensive course offerings, and it also allowed her to manage her studies alongside her professional responsibilities.

Caroline emphasized the importance of aligning the program with one’s learning styles and personal commitments. She recognized that an online program suited her better due to her tendency to lose focus in traditional classroom settings. The flexibility to learn at her own pace was a game-changer.

Transitioning to Graduate School

The transition to graduate school can be daunting. However, Caroline found that having a clear goal and purpose made the shift smoother. She approached graduate school with a focused mindset, aware of the sacrifices she would need to make, such as setting aside dedicated study time and balancing work and studies.

Caroline stresses the importance of self-awareness in understanding one's learning and research methods. For her, project-based work was more effective than rote memorization and testing. This self-understanding helped her choose a program that matched her strengths, thereby enhancing her chances of success.

Maximizing the Graduate School Experience

Engagement and intentionality were key factors in Caroline’s success. Despite the online nature of her program, she made it a point to stay connected and engaged with her coursework and classmates. She approached discussion boards with genuine interest, contributing meaningfully rather than merely fulfilling requirements.

Throughout her graduate journey, Caroline was proactive in applying her learning to real-world situations. For instance, a course on crisis communication proved invaluable when she found herself implementing a crisis communication plan during the COVID-19 pandemic at Kettering University.

Graduate School's Impact on Career

Caroline’s graduate education significantly impacted her career path. The skills she acquired, especially in strategic communication and digital marketing, were directly applicable to her roles post-graduation. Her current position at the University of Michigan Flint involves mass communication, digital signage, and strategic engagement with the campus community—tasks that her master’s program prepared her for.

Courses she once questioned—like crisis communication—became unexpectedly relevant, showcasing the importance of a diverse and comprehensive curriculum.

Advice for Aspiring Graduate Students

For those considering graduate school, Caroline offers valuable advice: start by deeply understanding yourself. Recognize your study preferences, professional goals, and life circumstances. Choose a program that aligns with your strengths and accommodates your lifestyle.

Planning is crucial. Envision the next few years of your life and anticipate potential challenges. Graduate school often coincides with significant life events, so being prepared can help manage unexpected hurdles and keep you on track to achieve your academic and professional goals.

Caroline Rathbun’s journey from an undergraduate student uncertain about her career path to a successful digital marketing specialist is a testament to the transformative power of graduate education. Her story underscores the importance of self-awareness, strategic planning, and proactive engagement in achieving success in graduate school. For anyone considering this path, Caroline’s insights provide a valuable roadmap to navigate the complexities of advanced education and emerge victorious in your professional endeavors.

TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:01]:
Welcome to the Victor's in Grad School, where we have conversations with students, alumni, and experts about what it takes to find success in graduate school.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:00:11]:
Welcome back to Victor's in Grad School. I'm your host, doctor Christopher Lewis, director of graduate programs at the University of Michigan, Flint. I'm really excited to have you back again this week. Every week, you and I are on a journey together. This journey is all about the graduate school hopes, dreams that you have for yourself and the things that you can do to be able to find success in that journey. And I say journey because it is a journey. Every one of you is on a journey that is very unique to who you are, and it's so important to understand that it is going to be different for every person. However, there are things that you can do right now, whether you're in graduate school or not, to be able to set yourself up for success and to do things even while you're in graduate school to find even greater success, to help you to be able to take the most out of that experience.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:01:11]:
That's what this podcast is all about. This podcast is about helping you to be able to find success in this journey. And that's why every week, I bring you different people with different experiences that have done different things, but they've all done one thing that is similar. They all went to graduate school. Now, the graduate school journey that they were on is gonna be different than the one that you're on, but they still had to do things to find success in their own journey. And so I hope that in all of these conversations that we have, you've got some paper out, you've got your pen out, you've got some some you've got your listening ears open to be able to help you to take some tools for your toolbox and be able to prepare you well. Today, we got another great guest with us. Caroline Rathbun is with us today, and Caroline is the communication and digital marketing specialist for the division of student affairs at the University of Michigan Flint, and she has her own journey of doing her undergraduate work at the University of Michigan Flint, but then leaving and going to Michigan State University for a master's degree in strategic communications.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:02:23]:
We're gonna talk about that journey today, and I'm really excited to have her here. Caroline, thanks so much for being here.

Caroline Rathbun [00:02:29]:
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about this. It's a fun opportunity.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:02:33]:
Well, I'm really excited to have you here as well. And I guess first and foremost, I wanna go back in time. I said you did your undergraduate work at the University of Michigan Flint, and you did that undergraduate degree in design and visual communications.

Caroline Rathbun [00:02:49]:
Correct. Yep.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:02:50]:
And then you went off, you did some work. And during that work life, you you started to get those professional experiences. But sometime in the first few years, you got the inkling that you wanted to do something a little bit different. You wanted to go a little bit further, and you wanted to go to graduate school. So bring me back to that point. What made you decide that you wanted to go to grad school?

Caroline Rathbun [00:03:14]:
Yeah. So, I mean, after my time at U of M Flint, I still felt like I was still kind of in that figuring it out phase. I had attained my degree. I was ecstatic about that. I honestly never thought I was a person that was gonna go beyond maybe even an associate's degree. So the fact that I had earned a bachelor's degree was, it was big for me. So after a couple years just kind of out in the workforce, I realized pretty quickly that I didn't wanna exclusively do graphic design. As much as I loved the field and the design aspect of it, I just I wanted more.

Caroline Rathbun [00:03:42]:
I wanted to use my brand in a different way than just design. So I left my first job out of college, and I set out on my own as a freelancer. And I had a great opportunity to work for some really awesome business and organizations in Flint. I got to do some freelance work for the Krim Fitness Foundation, Redwood Restaurant Management Group, Sky Point Ventures, a lot of different groups. And during that time, I did some graphic design work, but that's kind of what introduced me into some more of the digital marketing side of things, the social media management, and just a little bit more into the communications field. So that's really what kind of sparked that interest and understanding that I think in order for me to get to that next level, I wanted to find a program that was really kind of on the cutting edge in the beginning of this transformation we were seeing from your traditional print media marketing to the digital side. So looking into programs, I found that Michigan State had, the strategic communications master's program, and I grew up a Michigan State fan, so that was kind of a plus. But also Michigan State has a really great reputation for their communications fields and degrees, so that was a huge selling point.

Caroline Rathbun [00:04:45]:
And it was fully online. So I knew at that time I was gonna be going back into a full time job after kind of doing some freelancing for a while. So I wanted something that allowed me to have some flexibility to be able to go at my own pace with earning this master's while I was still trying to figure out a lot of my early career goals and ambitions.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:05:02]:
So you you talked about the fact that you did a little bit of research, and you were trying to find a program that had specific aspects to it, and you found that Michigan State was that program for yourself. Bring me back to that point of the research that you were doing. What were you looking for in a program, and what were some of the linchpins? And you kinda talked a little bit about this already, but what were some of those linchpins that made Michigan State outweigh other schools? And what were some of the other things that you were considering when you were looking at programs side by side? Unless it was just one program that you ended up saying it was it's only this program.

Caroline Rathbun [00:05:39]:
Yeah. It kind of ended up being the one program, but it was more so that it was kind of the timing of it. I while I was a little bit impulsive to do to apply for grad school, I applied pretty late in the application process, but because it was a newer program, they were happy to accept me kind of later on in the stage. I looked into some other programs a little bit once I kind of understood that was the area I wanted to focus in. But this one really just had, I think, the most robust offerings. And with it being an online program, that was just a huge thing for me because I knew I wasn't gonna have the time to be going into classes. And whether that be commuting to another school or if I was still staying local, finding somewhere nearby that offered what I was looking for fully.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:06:21]:
Now making a transition into graduate school is always a transition, and it's challenging in its own way because you're going from the way in which you've been educated as an undergraduate student and the expectations in graduate school are different and sometimes much more challenging, and faculty are going to expect more of you in many different ways. So talk to me about that transition because you were able to find success in going through graduate school. What did you have to do to set yourself up for success as you transitioned into graduate school? And what did you have to do to maintain that success throughout your graduate school program?

Caroline Rathbun [00:07:00]:
Yeah. I think going into graduate school versus starting your undergraduate, it's just a completely different mindset, at least that I went into it with because like I said before, I was very unclear on what I wanted to do for a long time. You know, I started off at Mott Community College, transferred over to U of M Flint. And at that time, I was just just figuring out a lot of who I was even as a person. And by the time I made it to that grad school stage, for me, it was the shift that like this was for me in my goals. What, you know, I was able to be in more of a focus program that was meeting the the goals that I had as a professional and learning the things that I wanted to learn. So I think that helped a lot and just reframing my mindset because I think a lot of times in undergrad, you have to take a lot of classes that may not interest you or there's more distractions just socially and things like that. So that was a big thing too.

Caroline Rathbun [00:07:45]:
It's just shifting my mindset to understanding the sacrifices I would have to make as a graduate student, knowing I'd have to set aside dedicated time to work on this, to focus on this. And and that was another thing. I just know that I was more successful in my undergrad when I had online classes than I did in person because I would tend to not want to always attend my classes regularly. So that was another big thing for me was just knowing that I could do it at my own pace. I could set kind of my own class schedule, and I think that's important for people when they're looking into a program to understand that that about myself. I know even throughout a program through a longer semester, I was diagnosed at a young age with ADHD. I tend to lose focus, lose intention, get distracted. So it was just a lot of work for me to remember to maintain that and why I was doing that and bringing myself back to it.

Caroline Rathbun [00:08:31]:
You know, I'm taking out these loans. I'm gonna have to pay them back. I need to make sure I'm making that worth it worth the time, and I'm getting the most out of this experience.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:08:39]:
So you talked about taking the most out of this experience. Talk to me about what you did during graduate school to do just that.

Caroline Rathbun [00:08:46]:
Yeah. I really, I really tried to make note. It being online, you're not gonna have the same experience as an in person where you're gonna be talking to people in classes or just seeing people around the hallway. But I wanted to make sure that I still felt some connection towards the school and towards the university. So just trying to make sure I was very engaged in my classes. A lot of times online, you have to do your typical standard question boards, you would talk to 2 people, not just going in and doing it just to go through the motions, but trying to be very intentional and mindful just about my approach in the classes and how I communicated with people. And even with the classes that may not have been a peak interest to me, just trying to understand that there is a reason that they want me to take the class. There's a reason that I'm here.

Caroline Rathbun [00:09:27]:
I am going to try to it may not be the one that interests me the most, but I'm going to engage with it and try to to understand why it's something that I should be learning throughout my grad school journey.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:09:37]:
Now you did finish up your degree, and you went off back into the workforce and now you're here at the University of Michigan Flint in a new role. And I guess as you look back to your graduate school experience and you think about the work that you're doing on a daily basis, how do you feel that your graduate degree helped prepare you not only for the work you're doing right today, but the work you've been doing since graduate school?

Caroline Rathbun [00:09:59]:
I think I look at so much of the stuff I learned during that time and I apply it on a daily basis. I'm communicating out to the campus on a mass level. I'm sending out email communications and putting things out on our digital signage. So that's a big part of it is understanding the brand voice, making sure I'm aligning with the brand standards of the university, and just understanding my audience and the target audience that I'm trying to get to and reach to. So that's a big thing. You know, I've only been in this role for about 2 months now. But just trying to bring a lot of the strategy side to it and the intentional side of using the information we can collect, whether it's data points from how students are communicating, engaging with our material, or just seeing how students are around campus, understanding what their needs are. And a lot of that in my master's program was just really trying to use data and research in areas like that to better understand what your audience needs.

Caroline Rathbun [00:10:49]:
And so when we're communicating or marketing to them, we are making sure our message is being heard, and it's being heard to the right people. So I use a lot in a day to day basis. And even beyond that, you know, like I was saying, one of the classes that I took during my master's was crisis communication. And at the time, I didn't really I was like, I don't really understand why I need to take this. I'm not gonna be in a crisis communication type team. Lo and behold, right when I'm about to graduate, COVID happens. I'm working at Kettering University on their communications and marketing team, and we had to implement crisis communication plan on a whim. And thankfully, I had that knowledge from my program that helped me to be able to build the foundation of everything that we needed to put out throughout campus while we were dealing with everything that was unfolding with the pandemic.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:11:30]:
Now, as you look back at your graduate education and you think about other individuals, other people that are thinking about graduate school, what are some tips that you might offer those students that might help them to find success sooner?

Caroline Rathbun [00:11:45]:
I think it starts while you're in your undergrad. If that's something you are remotely considering, really trying to take that time to understand yourself. Understand your study methods, your learning mess methods, your research methods, because that's really what will set you up for success once you move to graduate school. And also understanding, you know, I have a different learning style than most people. I am a very visual learner, and I knew that if I was to go into a program where it was gonna be a lot of memorizing text and repeating literature and things like that, I would I probably wouldn't find the same excess success. I I succeeded more based on project work rather than research and testing. So I think understanding, you know, where you are as a person with your academic journey and just, you know, what those goals are too, and what your life may look like once you enter into grad school. Because a lot of times when you're entering into grad school, you're working full time, you might be starting a family, getting married, moving across the country.

Caroline Rathbun [00:12:40]:
You know, there's so many different things that can happen during that time. So just trying to look into it and plan out those next few years as best you can so that there aren't a lot of unexpected surprises that can derail your journey and get you through to the finish line because that's the ultimate goal is to, you know, be able to walk across that stage and get that diploma.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:12:58]:
Well, Caroline, I just wanna say thank you for sharing your journey today, for sharing what you had to go through and and how it's impacted you in in what you're doing on a regular basis. And I truly wish you all the best.

Caroline Rathbun [00:13:10]:
Thank you. And I'm I'm really happy to be here and happy to be back working for the university. Or if there's any students listening to that, just do what you can to get involved. My time here was some of the best years and most transformative years of my life. So it's truly an opportunity to get involved with this campus, with this community, and find yourself, find your place, and that's really will help you successful in your journey beyond your undergraduate, whether it's just a career or if you're looking to get into grad school.

Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:13:34]:
The University of Michigan Flint has a full array of masters and doctorate programs if you are interested in continuing your education. Whether you're looking for in person or online learning options, the University of Michigan Flint has programs that will meet your needs. For more information on any of our graduate programs, visit umflint.edu/graduateprograms to find out more. Thanks again for spending time with me as you prepare to be a victor in grad school. I look forward to speaking with you again soon as we embark together on your graduate school journey. If you have any questions or want to reach out, email me at [email protected].