Alumni Presentation

            The alumni presentation was a fascinating and thoroughly rewarding experience.  It was a great opportunity to hear about real people who made the real transition from students here at CSUMB to the workforce.  With the growing economic instability that still plagues our job market a future beyond school can often seem daunting and more than a little intimidating but hearing how well these alumni were able to parlay their education and natural skills into major careers really helped allay those fears.  I especially liked hearing from Christina V. Ferrante.  She was the alumni who started her own creative consulting business working towards brand development and promotion for athletes and other sports professional.  I really respected her determination and self sufficiency, creating your own business and maintaining that business are some of the hardest career options to follow but there also ones that I am thoroughly interested in pursuing myself.  Hearing Christina talk about how she handles the pressures of achieving her life goals as well as pursuing growth and evolution for the company she created was truly inspiring.  It was also incredibly refreshing to hear from a creative professional from the Communication Design major.  Sometimes it can feel like the communication design major exists solely to prop the computer science majors and make their projects more accessible to the outside world so it was good to hear first hand from a CD major who went on to do her own thing ultimately separate from the world of information technology and computer science.  Erik Uppman of Sixty Eight West was also interesting; his story of gaining experience and networking was very enlightening.  It helped to really drive home the importance of knowing other individuals to achieve your own objectives rather than the far too pervasive stereotype of both creatives and programmers as solitary individuals who work in ultimate isolation.  It really puts the importance of community and teamwork in sobering perspective.