Successful Career in Marketing: Meet Alumna Melissa Collins

Melissa Collins graduated from CUE with a degree in Communications and now is enroll in a MBA program at Alliant

When Melissa Collins graduated, she was prepared to enter graduate school or the workforce. The choice was hers! As one of the five founding members of the student consulting organization SWAT: Students Working as a Team, Melissa has already garnered real-word public relations and marketing experience, working with clients such as the American-made Car Club and The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The formation of SWAT is endemic of CUE, where students are encouraged to form new clubs and organizations that increase learning opportunities in their chosen field of study.

Thanks to the support and mentoring of one of her professors, what began as a project for Melissa’s Cultural Systems in Organizational Communication’s class soon grew into a mini PR and Marketing Firm. “I consider Alliant one of San Diego’s finest institutions because of the amazing professors it has,” says Melissa. “Being able to learn from them one on one is definitely a rarity.” Melissa’s experience is not unique. Because of CUE’s small class sizes, all of its students are privy to a flexible learning environment, where professors are not only instructors, but advisors, mentors, consultants, and sounding boards.   

Melissa has chosen to pursue her Master’s in Business Administration at Alliant’s Marshall Goldsmith School of Management, but Melissa, and her fellow SWAT members, will graduate from CUE with hands-on experience conceptualizing, designing and implementing marketing public relations campaigns.

“Not only will I leave Alliant with a full portfolio of work for potential employers from my experience with SWAT, but will have the edge in this industry with a Master's degree.”