Master’s in Global Strategic Communications

For me, one of the most relevant experiences of the program was getting accustom to writing pages-long report every weekend for an entire year.

In one specific class – Global Communication – I had to observe someone or an event in a totally different culture, setting, language or religion than my own and conduct an ethnographic research report that would provide insight on it. Then I had to interview the person to get closer to what they were doing. For my research, I chose to follow around a friend from South Sudan and observed how she interacted at home, on the phone with parents and eating habits. Certainly cultures and ways of living vary greatly from one part of the world to another.

I mention this example to show the amount of work it took before I can even begin to write the paper. This helped me phenomenally because it created an ability for me to consume large amounts of information in relatively short periods of time and pull out the most essential from them. Today, as a result, I freelance for numerous newspapers often time turning around assignments overnight.

Beyond this, the program covered communication globally for corporations, governments, PR, crises, and more. I presently work in a numbers-oriented position as a marketing research analyst.

Lastly, I just wanted to give a mention to a professor from whom I received the simplest yet invaluable advice on improving my writing skills. While I normally did well writing press releases, media kits, backgrounder and others, I struggled with feature stories. Professor Hugo Ottolenghi told me if I want to be a better writer I just had to read more. As simple as this may sound, this is what helped my feature story-writing today. His class, Applied Media, dealt with practical writing in the media & communications industry such as content writing for websites, social media, press kits, proposals and more.

My time at FIU was instrumental in sharpening critical thinking skills and broadening horizons on the future of Public Relations and Corporate Affairs. Pursuing a Master in Global Strategic Communications taught me how to maintain a consistent message and strategy in different channels, without brushing aside audience diversity. Communicating effectively is neither a science nor an art, but rather a symbiosis of both. I believe simpler is better, but not always easier. FIU showed me a path forward.

I am just grateful for all the knowledge, amazing friends and outstanding professors I had during my stay. Since it is an international program, I had the chance to study with people all over the world, thanks to this, we were able to learn from each other, the way we think and act around the globe. Plus, the abroad experience in Berlin, intensified the learning process.

I remember my first day, we met a Russian, an Italian, a Brazilian, a Peruvian, a Chilean and of course me, a Colombian. As classes went by we became closer and closer, our network expanded with the rest of the classmates. We began to interact with the rest of the campus, we started living the “campus life”. I have to say it one more time, thank you FIU.

I currently work for a chemical Company called Ecoquimicos, based in Bogota, Colombia. I am now in charge of the imports/ export department and direct the sales in the south area of Colombia.

The way I’ve been managing my obligations with the company is based on mutual respect and point communications which I learned at the GSC program. This has helped the company improve its numbers.

You don’t invest in classes; you invest in people, interactions, memories and knowledge. That is priceless!