Degrees of success

McKenna Snow
Class of 2024

(2/2021) What entails being a good student? Is it one’s ability to focus solely on the subjects of her major, and not give anything else her attention? Is it her tunnel-vision goal to simply earn a degree for the sake of saying, "I earned a degree"? The life of a liberal arts student proves that to be a good student, the opposite of these posed questions is actually true. Branching out to fields not necessarily "relevant" to one’s major, living life on campus but not restricted to its borders, getting to know one’s community but also reaching beyond it—these things are all a part of the good student. These things vibrantly prepare the student for life post-graduation and enrich life as a student. Many Mount graduates embody this "good student" who can look back and say, "not only did I earn a degree, but I earned it well."

Angela Smith is one of those Mount graduates who truly made the most of her college experience and accomplished this, in part, through her work with the Emmitsburg News-Journal.

Graduating with her bachelor’s degree in 2015, Angela double-majored in Communications and Spanish. She minored in English. She then went on to get her MBA in 2017. These fields were not her only interests, however, as she said she embraced various other areas at the Mount. Angela said, "I really enjoyed getting involved with clubs, organizations, and events on campus that were related to my majors, as well as some that just strengthened my interests in other areas, like art or environmental justice." She is grateful for the "time to explore a wide variety of interests" at the Mount. These assorted interests showed in her involvement with several clubs and organizations on campus. As a senior, Angela worked for the Mountain Echo as the Community Section Editor and she was also involved with the Hispanic Cultural Association through the Office of Student Diversity, Environmental Club, and SGA. She also worked as the Managing Editor for the Emmitsburg News-Journal.

She worked with the Mount’s Marketing and Communications Office as a graduate assistant while she earned her MBA. "After that," Angela said, "I worked at a small marketing agency in Downtown Frederick and now work as the Social Media Marketing Manager at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD." Angela attributes working as Managing Editor for the Emmitsburg News-Journal as a solid foundation for her current job. Angela said that working for the News-Journal "certainly helped me develop my skills as a reporter, writer, and editor. I still use these storytelling and editing skills on the day-to-day at my current job as a Social Media Marketing Manager."

Connecting with her community within campus and even outside of it during her time at the Mount, Angela said, "I was excited to participate in clubs all throughout my time at the Mount and began getting even more involved and joining the executive teams of clubs like the Hispanic Cultural Association, Environmental Club and SGA, as the PR or social media person. It helped me think about marketing to a variety of audiences and about a variety of topics, and was a great way to practice and develop the skills I wanted to use in my future career." Working for the Emmitsburg News-Journal connected her with communities outside campus as well. "I really enjoyed getting to know the Emmitsburg community and getting involved in a different capacity than is usual for Mount students."

But even this involvement in local communities was not the full extent of Angela’s adventures in college; she also studied abroad twice. "I was very blessed to be able to study in London for a semester my sophomore year and in Madrid for a summer program after my junior year. Through these two amazing trips, I was able to immerse myself in different cultures, gain experience through an international internship, and make friends both from the Mount and from across the globe. The classes I took during my study abroad experiences helped me achieve my English minor and Spanish major."

Angela’s love of adventure enabled her to make the most of these trips and bring back rich knowledge and experience preparing her for a job in the marketing department. Studying abroad "made a lasting impact on me," Angela said. "It's such a unique experience to be able to live in the center of a historic metropolitan city as a college student and be able to immerse yourself in a new culture and new language." Overall, "the study abroad experiences were amazing!" she attested to me. "I would recommend them to anyone who is interested."

It’s almost four years since Angela got her MBA at the Mount. When asked what she missed the most about being at the Mount, she replied, "I met my best friends at the Mount, as well as my fiancé! Living just a hallway or building away from my closest friends is something that I really cherished while in college. With the pandemic making it difficult to see friends and family, it's nice to look back on a time when it was so easy to be together."

Because I am a freshman at the Mount, I find Angela’s story very inspiring. She truly shows that life on campus, and picking one or two majors, does not put limitations on one’s capacity for adventures and growth. There is so much to be done, to be learned, to be celebrated. The memories she has shared with me, the things she is grateful for, the clubs she was involved with; all these things are pieces of life as a student at the Mount well-lived. I look up to Angela as a writer, Mount alum, and simply, a good student who is ever-excited to learn. As someone who has a passion for writing, it was very encouraging to be told by Angela, "Writing is a skill you can use in essentially every career and having practical experience with writing is always useful." The Emmitsburg News-Journal is a wonderful opportunity to cultivate that skill, and to bring people together in the Mount community, pre-graduation and even post-graduation.