My Winter Break Plans

We are only a few days away from officially starting winter break here at South, and I am so excited for the chance to relax and spend time with friends and family during Christmas.

Christmas time for my family is very busy and lively. We have parties called posadas almost every day leading up to Christmas, and a lot of my family members have birthdays in these next few weeks. That means that there will be plenty of family parties to attend during this break. I actually have a huge wedding to go to this weekend after finals, so that will be a nice way to start my break.

I'm also excited to spend time with my friends and my boyfriend. They all live back home, so I don't get to see them very often, especially recently. I'm really excited to be able to have more free time to spend with my friends without stressing out about having deadlines and exams to worry about.

I'm also excited to go Christmas shopping for all my loved ones. I haven't had the chance to shop for anyone, but I can't wait to buy and wrap presents for everyone. I also have plans to go see the Christmas lights with my friends and boyfriend. There's a Christmas festival back home that always has really pretty displays, and we might come see the displays here in Mobile.

And Honestly, the most exciting thing about going home for Christmas will be not having to drive long distances for a while and having nice home-cooked food for every meal.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season with their loved ones.

-Paola

Being a Communications Major!

Today I'll be sharing my experience as a communications major. I haven't been a communications major for very long. I actually left the nursing program last spring and have only been a communications major since summer 2018. So far, I do not regret my decision at all and have fallen in love with my new major. In this post, I'll be sharing some of my experiences as a communications major.

1. At USA you can select your major concentration and focus your curriculum in a specific area of communications.
 Students can concentration in strategic communications, which focuses on PR and advertising. That is my concentration, and I absolutely love it. Other concentrations include, journalism, digital cinema and television, and communication studies. Each concentration has unique courses in their curriculum.

2. As a Communications major, you do a lot of projects and presentations. 
Of course, this wouldn't be a communications degree if you didn't have to write papers and prepare presentations. Our assignments are always interesting though. Like today, I presented a group project in one of my classes, and we chose to rebrand the restaurant Applebee's for the project.

3. Classes always involve interesting discussions about current events
In most of my classes, we will spend time discussing current events as they relate to the topic at hand. I've been a part of discussions about so many different topics. It's so interesting to see how pervasive and relevant the field of communications is to society.

4. Even writing can be creative and fun. 
In fact, I'm currently working on writing a case study for my media ethics class on a crisis that cosmetics company faced earlier in the year. I love that I get to research about any topic that I want and still make it applicable to the field. 

5. You get to learn more about inner workings of advertising and public relations. 
Advertising and PR are much more complex than some people imagine. I've loved learning about all the different approaches to each field.

-Paola