Marketing Doctoral Student Nita Umashankar

Nita UmashankarMy intern, Melissa, is an ambitious and sincere student aiming to apply to graduate school and ultimately pursue a career in music entertainment administration. Melissa is a highly motivated and optimistic individual who works diligently to balance her academic, extracurricular and social activities.

Melissa and I began our working relationship with informal discussions about personal development. Being a sophomore at a large University, it is often customary for students, especially minority students, to feel burdened by not only academic pressures but also social demands. I have found that having a strong sense of self-esteem has enabled me to pursue higher education given my educational and personal circumstances. Hence, I thought it was important to discuss with Melissa issues concerning confidence and self-efficacy.

We proceeded to discuss her professional aspirations and then designed a detailed and customized research plan to further distill her interests, preferences and the best route to reach her goals. I designed bi-monthly assignments and we met frequently to review the assignments and discuss next possible steps. Melissa became familiar with the differences among different graduate school programs including masters is her area of interest, PhD programs and MBA programs. Melissa contacted industry specialists, record companies, graduate coordinators of masters programs in music administration and applied for several internships. She completed a final paper and submitted it to me. Further, she made a final presentation outlining specific goals that she had accomplished during the semester and overarching goals for personal and professional development. Being one of the few college-educated women in her family, I know that Melissa Montes has both the aptitude and the motivation to serve as an inspiration to other women like her.