Hussman students dive into specialty courses through certificate programs
By Hannah Rosenberger
UNC Hussman’s five certificate programs offer students the chance to specialize their Hussman experience in their area of interest — and develop tangible, marketable skills in some of the media industry’s most competitive sectors: fashion communication, health communication and marketing, sports communication, business communication and political communication.
Learn from Hussman students in these programs why they’re taking advantage of the certificates and how they’re using those opportunities to pursue their career goals.
Fashion Communication
Loulie Olson ’25 (she/her)
Loulie Olson ’25 found the way back to her creative side and a home at UNC Hussman in the FashionMash Workroom program — now the Fashion Communication Certificate.
“Even on the first day of class, I felt so excited and just exhilarated,” said Olson, who is studying advertising and public relations. “Everyone in the classes is so motivated and smart and excited about fashion and being creative in that way.”
FashionMash students partner with real brands throughout the semester to apply the concepts they’ve discussed in class. Students worked with fashion label Stella McCartney in fall 2023.
With the introduction of the Fashion Communication Certificate program this academic year, students like Olson will have a tangible marker of those skills to add to their resumes upon graduation.
“It's been really awesome to learn how to execute my ideas,” Olson said. “Because I feel like in my classes up until this point, I haven't had all of the skills that I've necessarily wanted to have to be able to convey my ideas and communicate them.”
Arianna Darden ’24 (she/her)
Arianna Darden ’24 has been a fashionista for as long as she can remember. But it wasn’t until her experiences with the FashionMash Workroom program — and now, the Fashion Communication Certificate — that she realized she could combine that passion with her career goals in the advertising, public relations and the social media space.
“I finally have had the permission to be creative and just be myself and to fall in love with art,” Darden, who’s studying advertising and public relations, said. “And just hone into those crazy ideas and just seeing where they could go.”
Combining the real brand collaborations of the fashion certificate classes with Darden’s experience running similar campaigns as president of Xpressions has given her the skillset to stand out in the highly competitive fashion and beauty industry.
And that unique skillset and fashion awareness has already landed Darden a full-time job as a social media content creator with Durham-based beauty brand Burt’s Bees, where she interned over the summer.
“It's important for us to have these certifications and to have these experiences to speak to, because as long as you have the experience, you can speak to the experience,” Darden said. “It doesn't necessarily matter if you went to college for it, or you majored in it — if you know what to do, you know what to do.”
Health Communication and Marketing
Gray Perry ’24 (she/her)
When Gray Perry ’24 started taking advertising and public relations classes at Hussman, she immediately loved the field as a whole, but she found herself wanting to concentrate her studies in a specific area.
That’s when she learned about UNC Hussman’s Health Communication and Marketing Certificate, and Perry jumped straight into the rapidly growing market. Over the summer, thanks to the networking and internship opportunities of the program, she interned with Durham-based home care startup CareYaya, working on its marketing and public relations team.
“I learned a lot because it was a startup environment, and it was health care,” Perry said, “But I was also doing PR and writing press releases and doing some other social media marketing, so I still gained that experience.”
The classes she’s taken for the certificate so far have given Perry a hands-on overview of the health communications industry and the factors that influence it. And they’ve solidified her desire to pursue a career in healthcare marketing after graduation.
“I just wanted to do something that was, in my mind, the Ad/PR for helping people,” Perry said. “And healthcare seems like a good way to combine those two things for me.”
Casey Medlin ’25 (she/her)
In Behavioral Science of Health Communication (MEJO 569), Casey Medlin ’25 and her classmates took a deep dive into the psychological processes that affect how people make decisions about their health. Although she’d found the Health Communication and Marketing Certificate program on a whim scrolling through the Hussman website, Medlin knew then that this program would mean something more for her.
“This program seemed to be the perfect fit for me because healthcare communication lies at the intersection of my passion for writing and my passion for people,” Medlin said.
Aside from just learning about the field within these classes, faculty who teach in the program consistently bring in industry professionals to speak to their experiences working in the field.
For Medlin, connecting with communications leaders like media group Omnicom is inspiring. After graduation, Medlin hopes to work with a public relations agency — ideally, with healthcare companies and initiatives as clients.
“I believe this program is equipping me with the tools and information needed to most effectively put my writing and communications skills to use for the betterment of society,” Medlin said. “What could be more important than people's health?”
Business Communication
Cooper Metts ’24 (he/him)
When Cooper Metts ’24 was enrolled in Business News Wire (MEJO 630) in spring 2023 as part of the Business Communication Certificate program, he didn’t expect to end up reporting on the sewage and wastewater limitations in Siler City and Pittsboro.
“I never thought of that as being something that could affect business,” he said. “But it definitely affected them.”
As a journalism and economics double major, Metts is fascinated by what these types of economic development projects mean for the people they affect, especially in lower income communities or areas in development.
Along his route to pursuing either a business reporting career or a job in governmental economic development, the classes Metts has taken for the Business Communication Certificate have allowed him to concentrate his upper-level journalism classes on his area of interest — and gain versatile skills like reading and understanding business filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“That's something that I definitely don't do in economics, but I have done it in my journalism classes,” Metts said. “I think I've also learned a lot about networking with people specifically for sources for stories, and I've learned a lot about how to find stories.”
Kayden Hunt ’24 (she/her)
Kayden Hunt ’24 says she’s a kid in a candy store when it comes to collecting knowledge during her college career. And at Hussman, she’s doing that with not one, not two, but hopefully three certificate programs on her transcript — fashion, sports and business.
She says the classes she’s taken through the certificate programs so far have taught her tangible skills beyond just their respective fields, whether that’s branding herself through the FashionMash program or learning personal finance through business communication classes.
“It's all about networking, and who you know,” Hunt said. “Business gives you those skills to do that. But when you can report on it and report those stories, you're not just helping the greater good, you're helping everyone else.”
Hunt sees herself going into a career in marketing, combining the skills that she’s gained from her academic experiences in journalism, public policy and business. But she’s used her combination of majors, minors and certificates to make herself as marketable as possible in whatever role she ends up in.
“I want to get the most out of college,” Hunt said. “And this is my way of doing that.”
Sports Communication
Aidan Myers ’24
Aidan Myers ’24 has always been interested in what makes the sports industry into the successful business operation that it is. He doesn’t really see himself as a sports analyst or broadcast anchor, but as a general sports fan, he’s fascinated by what goes on behind the scenes of company or athlete branding — making the Sports Communication Certificate a perfect fit.
“In terms of the background story, or how a player is helping their local community or something like that — that's interesting to me,” Myers said.
In his Ethical Issues and Sports Communication class (MEJO 476) last semester, Myers and his classmates worked with college football’s Capital One Orange Bowl on ways to help improve their community outreach strategy and amplify the ways that they’re giving back.
The class presented their work to representatives from the Orange Bowl at the end of the semester.
“Sometimes I feel like in classes, especially with lectures, they look to emphasize what you know, instead of what you can do,” Myers said. “And so, in this type of class, I think I appreciate more emphasis on the quality of work that's being produced instead of just the breadth of knowledge that you have.”
Lizzy Rotchford ’24
When Lizzy Rotchford ’24 and her groupmates had to create a new event for a less-publicized sport in her Sports Marketing and Advertising class — one of six class options for students pursuing the Sports Communication Certificate — they decided to reinvent ping pong.
“It gave us the chance to be really creative and explore a lot of different avenues,” Rotchford said. “I think I'll be able to use the knowledge from that project in the future for an actual job.”
She’s had similar practical experiences in the other sports communication classes she’s taken. Having that tangible marker of knowledge in the form of the certificate on her resume makes her feel more confident, competent and marketable about her own abilities.
While she sees herself potentially working in the world of extreme sports someday — perhaps at surfing tournaments in her eastern North Carolina hometown — Rotchford isn’t exactly sure where she wants to end up. But that’s part of what she likes about the sports marketing field.
“There are so many things you can do,” Rotchford said. “You can work for events, you could work specifically for an athlete, or for a college, for a team. I like that there's a lot of possibilities and I don't have to decide — I'm not putting myself in a box.”
Political Communication
The Political Communication Certificate program officially launches in fall 2024. Hear from the students pursuing UNC Hussman’s newest certificate as part of their Media and Journalism curriculum after its full introduction later this year.