Theresa Brown ’21, Italian, journalism, and professional and public writing, was involved in many organizations during her time at the University of Rhode Island. She was involved with organizations including the Good Five Cent Cigar, Ether(bound), PRSSA, and Chi Omega. Since graduating, Brown earned a master’s in publishing at New York University. She is now working as a sales coordinator at Simon & Schuster.
Why did you choose to study at URI?
I grew up in Rhode Island, my dad went to URI, and my cousins were there at the time. I actually applied as a nursing major. URI has the most amazing nursing program, and it was a dream of mine at that point to get in and do that. But also, just being close to home was really nice. And then, when I changed majors, it was great because Harrington was there, and I had the ability to switch to another amazing school.
What made you choose to study your majors?
I started as a nursing major. I was going through a Grey’s Anatomy phase at the time. I can’t do blood at all, so I don’t know why I thought that was a good idea. But I met Emily Gotheir, the editor-in-chief of the Good Five Cent Cigar, in 2017.
As I was going through my classes and realized that nursing might not be for me, I realized that what I was looking forward to was the Cigar meetings on Mondays and the one writing class that I was taking with Professor Cheryl Foster. I told her I was not doing well with nursing, and it just wasn’t for me, and I knew that immediately. She set me up with a meeting with John Pantalone, the Journalism Department chair, and with Jeremiah Dyehouse, the Professional and Public Writing Department chair. I ultimately decided to do both.
On the Italian side of things, I grew up learning Italian here and there because my grandparents on my mom’s side are Italian immigrants. I studied it all through high school and went to Italy a few times. I was taking college courses in high school for Italian. So I said, “Maybe I’ll just pick that up again now that I have time.”
I ended up taking 18 or 19 credits every semester so I could hit all of those, but I do not regret it at all. They were all individual passion projects that led me toward what I’m doing today.
How do you use the skills you learned while you were at URI today?
Harrington and the Cigar gave me the confidence I didn’t have in high school. I was determined to be involved and have people know my name. I wanted to make a difference with what I was doing. I think a lot of what I got was confidence from being in the positions I was in, and through classes, I gained the confidence that I knew what I was talking about.
The skills I learned through journalism and writing were the multimedia aspects. People think journalism and writing are writing on paper or typing, but it was a lot of video production and editing, knowing how to take a photograph, making a website, and writing for different formats. Being able to say that I had experience making my own videos, being in front of the camera, being behind the camera, being in the editing room, knowing how to code a little bit, how to set up a website, and how to use InDesign, Premiere, and all of those things that I learned in my multimedia courses was huge.
During graduate school, I got a job in luxury fashion in New York City. I credit that with being able to work on the website and graphic side of things, being comfortable speaking publicly and communicating, and having confidence. I don’t think I would have had that if I had not been in classes with people like John Pantalone, Cheryl Foster, and Genoa Shepley.
Describe your favorite memory from your time as a student.
Running for editor-in-chief of the Cigar sticks out to me. I remember I went to my first meeting, and then I didn’t show up again for another month. And then I ran into Emma, and she said, “You gotta come back. You gotta try again.” At that point, I had switched, and I knew that I was going to be a journalism major. She said, “There’s no reason for you not to be here.”
By the end of that semester, I absolutely loved it, and I was taking five articles a week. Going into that next semester, the new managing editor Nick Bush, who is one of my all-time favorite people, encouraged me to run to be a staff reporter. I did, and I didn’t get it, and I was so devastated. But I kept going back, and I kept taking more articles. I was like, “I am going to prove to them that I’ll be good enough for staff next semester.”
Then two years later, I was standing in front of the same group of people running for editor-in-chief unopposed. And I told everyone that story. Those two years held a lot, finally becoming comfortable being away from home, creating such an amazing group of friends, a whole lot of interviews, photographs and articles, and uncovering those exciting things. I think those four years at the newspaper turned into the basis of who I am today.
What one piece of advice would you give Harrington students who are preparing to enter the workforce?
First, the advice I got from my dad going into college was, “Make everybody know your name.” I think that’s huge because making those connections with professors ultimately gets you everywhere. So make them know your name, make them know that you care.
I would also say get involved. I think that learning goes so much beyond just being in the classroom, and some of the most amazing lessons I learned were through articles I wrote for the Cigar, working at Ether(bound), and working at the PRSSA. Harrington loves the experiential learning part of things, and I think to overlook that is to overlook a huge part of the growth that you’ll do in college.
I think students should take classes outside of their major. Harrington has so many things; if it were up to me, I would have majored in all the programs. Everything crosses over. You don’t just use PR, journalism, writing, or film. It’s one school for a reason, and taking classes that are cross-listed or that random film class or PR class is super important because you never know where you’re going to be able to use that. Chances are, it’s everywhere.