Grad student Kate Dudley moves to wintry north

January 13, 2014

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By Kalie Souknary: As a grad student and teaching assistant, Kate Dudley knows what it means to work hard. After assisting Senior Lecturers Beth Clark and Jon Zmikly this past fall and helping organize her second Mass Communication Week, she has recently begun work in Ohio as the Public Relations/Event Coordinator for the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio. The council spans 18 counties and serves 40,000 girls and roughly 12,000 adult volunteers."I work with all facets of the organization: programs, camps, fundraising, volunteer management, etc. to create and implement a social media strategy for the entire council, as well as plan, publicize, and execute fundraising events throughout the year," she said.One of those events, known as "Dessert First," features celebrity chefs creating desserts using Girl Scout Cookies.When she was a grad assistant, her average day included proofreading press releases, speaker bios and any other materials created by the undergraduate PR team. It also included organizing class and speaker schedules and coordinating parking instructions. These skills have helped her in her new position.Mass Comm WeekDudley said working with Clark during Mass Communication Week has allowed her to work on her project managing skills, and she enjoyed working together as a team. Even though there were fewer speakers than last year's event, there were more panels and "meet 'n greet" opportunities for students and professionals.“Mass Comm. Week was crazy as usual, but Cece Garcia, part of the undergraduate PR team kept the schedule of all volunteers and PR team members on track to make sure we had someone in the green room at all times and in every session, so that was a huge help,” Dudley said.Dudley arrived to Old Main each morning at 7:00 a.m., and the earliest she was ever able to leave was 6:45 p.m.“I was in charge of handling the logistics of all the moving parts throughout the week, which included constant contact with the shuttle drivers and coordinating the timing of speaker arrivals and departures, making sure rooms were set up with proper equipment and suitable speaker arrangements, ordering food for lunches, transporting visiting speakers from their lodging to the school, or just handling any last minute changes. For the Meet N’ Greet, I created and sent out email invites, scheduled food and was on hand to take care of any last-minute issues that occurred during the event, such as running to the gas station to buy more water when we ran out.”Grad SchoolDudley said grad school for a Journalism and Mass Communication major is becoming a more of a necessity, especially when coupled with some professional experience. She encourages Journalism and Mass Communication majors to be open to trying different jobs and responsibilities because they could bring new opportunities.“There are so many different directions to take an education in mass communication, so don’t limit yourself,” Dudley advised. "Once you’ve worked for a few years and really know what you’d like to do, then you can use grad school to help you become an expert in that specific industry," Dudley said.People in Dudley’s program are focusing on industries such as non-profits, sports, outdoor, and fashion.