Why I Love MSUM

It's Welcome Week, and the last required event on our schedule is the Academic Welcome. "Oh good, a seminar," I thought to myself. As a transfer student, this is the second university welcome week I've attended, and I must admit I wasn't a fan of the first one. Walking over to the Center for the Arts, I hear a beat, a loud rhythm in the distance. Cheers echo as I get closer. The doors are open, and as I walk into the building, I am surrounded by other students. To my right and left, professors are clapping, cheering, and shouting encouragement, lining a path to the Hansen Theater. It's electric. With a grin on my face, I sit down and the program begins.

"We start every student's journey at Minnesota State University Moorhead in the way that we end it, with every professor congratulating you and cheering you on," President Anne Blackhurst says.

B.S. in Integrated Advertising & Public Relations 

This story is at the core of my student experience at MSUM: faculty supporting and encouraging me every step of my college journey.

I graduated high school in 2018 (I was 17) and went to community college, mostly because that's what most people I knew did after graduation. I had an idea of what I enjoyed, computer science and psychology, but quickly found out that I didn't want to work in either of those fields for the rest of my life.

I spent the next three years bouncing between jobs I didn't enjoy, trying to find something that I could make a career out of. After two of those years, I decided to apply for college at MSUM, because it was close to friends and between the two places I grew up in.

I came here in 2022 majoring in audio production and entertainment management, but really wanted to explore classes and topics to see what would stick. My advisor, Ryan Jackson, encouraged me along the way even as I switched my major, and subsequently my advisor. That's when I started studying integrated advertising and public relations. I was intrigued when Kay Beckermann, professor of advertising and public relations, came to a class I was attending to promote an on-campus advertising agency called Flypaper Creative Services.

I wasn't a fan of one of my classes, and Flypaper, which is also a class, was at the exact same time, so I figured I'd switch and see what it was all about. It was my experience at Flypaper that sold me on the major, and more importantly, the department.

Kay had unwavering faith in me, even though I'd never taken an advertising or public relations class before, and honestly couldn't tell the difference between them. She believed in me, in my abilities that had never been shown to her, and was determined to see me succeed. Kay is always in the business of setting her students up with opportunities and instilling in them the confidence to succeed. Kay has been the light that's gone ahead of me, encouraging me to keep going, and showing me the many directions that my path could go. 

While I've been taking classes, all of the professors I've run into have built up my abilities and confidence, cheering me on in my successes and guiding my path through higher education.

Theresa Hest, a professor in the School of Communications & Journalism, was one of the first professors I met and got to know. She is so warm and encouraging and is the only professor I can legally call my friend (thanks to a contract I made in her class, which we both signed). She's steadily been a lamppost I look back on with fond memories, and appreciation for the ways she gave me peace of mind when I hopped off the beaten path to blaze my own trail, and start my college journey.

I've had the pleasure of being in several of Chris Walker's classes, as well as getting to know him outside of academics. He was the first one to recognize and instill in me a knack for writing. Chris is the campfire where I find rest on my journey, and he has taught me that the fire of blunt criticism could either burn me, or be channeled into a torch that allows me to see clearly, guiding me forward. Without his encouragement, and unwaveringly honest criticism, I wouldn't be the writer I am today.

These are just three of the many faculty members who have made an impact on me, and I know there will be plenty more to write about by the time I graduate.

The culture of Minnesota State University Moorhead truly is one of encouragement, celebration, and inspiration to push past the difficult times to truly grow, in character and academics. I am grateful to be at a university with faculty and friends who consistently believe in me and cheer me on.

I look forward with eager anticipation to the day I get to walk into my last event as a student, in the same way I did the first: with every professor in the university clapping, cheering, and shouting encouragement.