MELBOURNE
– Natalie Sellers can’t help it.
When she hears that someone is interested in getting a
degree in communications, she immediately tells them to
look at one university in particular – Florida Institute
of Technology.
“I always highly recommend FIT because of my experiences,”
said Sellers, director of Communications and Service Excellence
at Parrish Medical Center in Titusville. She graduated
from the Melbourne-based university in 2003 with a master’s
degree in Technical and Professional Communication.
“I loved FIT’s communications program because
the class sizes were smaller than what you’d find
at other universities. We had a diverse group of students
so there were plenty of really good conversations. Plus,
you can’t beat the caliber of professors that teach
at FIT,” she said.
Now there’s one more incentive for prospective students
to enroll: a new Marketing Communication Graduate Certificate
program.
Unlike the full masters program, which takes 36 credit
hours and at least two years for the average student to
complete, the certificate program can be accomplished
in one year, even on a part-time enrollment basis.
“This program is for people who either don’t
have the time, money or need for the full masters program,”
said Judith B. Strother, Ph.D., chair of the school’s
graduate programs in Communication and the certificate
program’s supervisor.
Admission requirements are a bachelor’s degree from
an accredited institution with a 3.0 grade point average
and one letter of recommendation.
“The certificate program is valuable for people
who want specialized training in a narrower field,”
she added.
| The
graduate certificate program consists of four courses:
|
| Seminar
in Marketing Communication, which introduces
students to the theory and practice of conducting
effective marketing communications campaigns. It also
focuses on current advertising and persuasive communication
strategies |
| Customer
Service Communication
which examines customer contact personnel-consumer
interaction as well as focuses on key variables that
shape communication. |
| Public
Relations,
studying communication principles and strategies applied
to the development of goodwill between
an entity and its public. |
| Marketing
Management,
a course examining the tools and techniques of managing
marketing activities as well as analyzing the marketing
process. |
Over
the years, higher institutions of learning have had to
come up with creative ways of meeting the educational
needs of people in today’s fast-moving world, where
the average person is juggling job, family and other obligations
and cannot attend classes during the more traditional
morning and mid-day times.
FIT, for instance, offers many of its courses in the afternoons
and evenings.
Strother said courses in both the certificate and masters
programs have been designed specifically for people who
work, with many classes starting at 5:30 p.m. and meeting
only one night a week.
“We
try to make the program very manageable for people who
work,” she said.
Of the 14 to 15 students currently enrolled in the masters
program, only two are full-time students. The rest work
in a diverse field of careers, including public relations,
corporate or medical communications, even high-tech jobs
with NASA or NASA contractors.
Students like Zohra Fazal, who has a bachelor’s
degree in Biology with high school teaching certification
and wanted to broaden her focus.
“I
know I will have lots of career options with this degree,
whether I choose to return to teaching or to enter the
field of science journalism,” she stated.
About 35 students have graduated from the masters program
since its inception 16 years ago.
A 1995 graduate, Svafa Gronfeldt, went on to get her doctorate
from the London School of Economics. She currently works
as deputy CEO of a company in Iceland and recently published
the book “Service Leadership” with Strother.
Sellers, who has had two job promotions since earning
her master’s degree, said the FIT program, which
gives students real-world projects, has proven invaluable
to her professional growth.
“it
really gave me the extra foundation I needed to grow in
my job, become a better communicator overall and really
bring something of value to my organization,” she
said.
For more information on FIT’s new Marketing Communication
Graduate Certificate program or the graduate program in
technical and professional communication, contact the
Office of Graduate Admissions at (321) 674-8027 or log
on to http://cpla.fit.edu/hu-com/MS_Communication.html.
