Today’s Alumni Spotlight beams onto 2008 graduate Jamie Foster. After graduation, Jamie worked as the Office Manager/Assistant Director of Admissions for the Institute of Classical Homeopathy in Potrero Hill. There she was responsible for coordinating events, like Open Houses and the homeopathic booth at the San Francisco Green Festival, desigining marketing materials, and assisting with admissions and recruitment. This past fall Jamie left her position to return to school, and that is what I am going to focus on in my blog. Let’s catch up with Jamie!
Jamie is currently a first year Master’s student in the MA in Communication Studies program at San Francisco State University. According to Jamie, “I knew before I graduated from USF that I was going to continue my education. After talking to a few of my professors at USF, my eyes were open to the possibility of conducting research and teaching as a career. I was so intrigued by this and with the help of all my wonderful professors I came up with a plan, which meant returning to school to get my MA and eventually a PhD.”
What is especially exciting is that Jamie will be teaching her own class this coming spring! She will be teaching COMM 150: Fundamentals of Oral Communication, which is a hybrid course incorporating both communication theory and public speaking. Jamie was a Teaching Assistant for a class this past semester and taught several days, including a day on Nonverbal Communication (one of my personal favorites!) .
Future Professor Jamie Foster
A few more updates on Jamie:
1) She is enjoying graduate school so much that she wants to continue her studies and eventually earn her PhD! So, we have a future professor in the making! Jamie is really enjoying her courses and professors at SFSU, and seems to have landed in the right place.
2) Jamie has known for a while that she wanted to go to graduate school. “I knew Communication Studies was the area I wanted to continue my education during my sophomore year at USF when I was taking Nonverbal Communication. I felt like a kid in a candy store, wide eyed and amazed by everything I was learning. I love watching people and studying their interactions, I think it is fascinating and when I found out that I could actually have a career in studying people I was delighted.”
3) In spite of knowing this, she thinks that taking some time off to work for a few years before returning to school was one of the best decisions she made. “I decided to take some time off and make a little money before embarking on school again. This was the best decision I ever made….I think I would not be doing as well in my program if I had not taken those 2 years off when I did. The MA program is much harder then undergrad classes, however I have discovered that studying communication is my passion and the hard work doesn’t seem so hard now.”
4) When Jamie had to put together her lecture on nonverbal communication, she consulted her Nonverbal Communication Summary Sheet! Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up! Five years after being in Nonverbal Communication with me, she returned to her Summary Sheet (she shared with me that she really wished she had laminated it!). What is a Summary Sheet? You have to take a Doohan class to find out, but I am happy to hear that, all jokes aside, it was helpful!
Congratulations to Jamie on all of her success, and continued good wishes in graduate school!
Congrats, Jamie! Best of luck to a fellow class of 2008 alum!