After months and months of touring and online researching, my mom and I had been highly encouraged to look at Elon University for its communication school. We decided that because so many people were begging us to check it out that we needed to give it a try.
We toured on October 28,2011–a day that started the first day of my Elon career.
I fell in love with Elon: The location, small classroom environment, architecture, the television studios, collaboration of students and faculty, and finally the opportunity to be a part of a cohort of students who, even before coming to campus, were focused and driven about excelling inside and outside the classroom in the realm of communications.
I applied to be a Communications Fellow and I consider it to be one of the best decisions I’ve made as an Elon student.
I, along with my fellow 2012 Communications Fellows, come from all backgrounds and each come to campus with different dreams and passions but we are all united in the fact that we want to be leaders both on and off campus in the communications field.
Among the components and opportunities that come with being an Elon Communications Fellows are the opportunities to take classes together and take educational trips to learn more about the media markets in major American cities.
My first day walking into COM 100 was the first time in my life I didn’t feel like the oddball in the room. The room was filled with young men and women who too loved journalism, news, writing, current events and most importantly shared my dream of impacting the realm of professional communications.
As mentioned above, as Comm Fellow I have gotten the chance to travel to Atlanta and Orlando on an all expense paid learning experience in order to better learn about the news industry as well as meet and network with Elon alums and fellow Comm Fellows who are using what they learned as a part of being an Elon Comm Fellows program in their jobs and professions and want to give back to current students who are pursuing similar dreams.
Back on campus, being a Comm Fellow comes with certain expectations that I have chosen to exceed in order to set myself up to be the best communication student I can be thanks to the generous investment I have received from my professors, fellows and classmates.
I am a leader in student media by serving as an anchor and reporter for Elon Local News, Elon’s Emmy award winning news leader. Being a leader on campus through student media and in the classroom is both an expectation and an opportunity that all Comm Fellows strive to meet and exceed in order to better the program and the school as a whole.
Professors and faculty know that I along with my fellow fellows serious from the start of our first year about the field so they can come to us first about projects and opportunities on and off campus.
Moreover, through the experiential learning grant through the Fellows Program, I am able to study abroad with Elon. In January of 2015, I am studying abroad in Barbados in order to learn about the media, culture and sport of the island nation. Without this grant, I would not be able to have such an opportunity. I am so excited to learn more about the news industry in a completely new culture, which will make a better journalist and global citizen.
The greatest advantage of being an Elon Communications Fellow is found in the relationships that I share with my fellow fellows, staff, faculty and alumni.
-Meredith Stutz ’15