Annalise at Grafton Chamber of Commerce office The Department of Communication is taking a look at recent graduates to see what they're doing. Annalise Jasinski currently works for the Grafton Area Chamber of Commerce (GACC) as the Special Events/Tourism Promotion Coordinator.
Annalise applied to the GACC 6 months after graduation, waiting for a position she deemed the right fit. Her journey of applying and being hired was memorable.
“When I applied for this job, I was interviewed a couple times and was offered the position and started the next day. It started as a whirlwind because I had one week to familiarize myself with the Chamber and the events started for 2020,” she says.
Annalise has many responsibilities. She plans, promotes and organizes all things GACC. This includes running the social media accounts for the GACC, Celebrate Grafton, and the GACC Young Professionals Group. She also creates other material materials, and produces “Get Away to Grafton,” the Chamber’s podcast.
Social media has been an important part of Annalise’s job. She has learned new things about how to use it successfully.
“We posted about Grafton’s 40th Annual Christmas Parade as an event and it reached over 62,000 views and 3,500 responses organically. Statistics are great and this result was beyond outstanding and exceeded our expectations, but the power that social media has to connect with community members/clients/customers is amazing and is something we truly take advantage of,” she says,
Annalise recognizes her job is closely related to the skills she obtained with her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mass Communication.
“The first thing that I always joke about is that my position is the epitome of my Mass Communication Degree. I truly feel that I am able to use everything I learned while at CUW, and that such a gratifying feeling. To be able to find a job description that matches your degree is so unheard of, especially with a broad degree like Mass Communication, but it sure was worth waiting for,” she says.
She also understands the value of specific COMM courses, but two has the most profound impact on her.
“I believe the courses that have and will forever change my life are Cross-Cultural Communications and Gender and Communication. We discussed how people from different ethnicities, cultures, genders, backgrounds and beliefs make up our communities,” she says. “These classes prepared me for serving people in my community because it is okay that we are all different and it is okay that we believe different things.”
The first thing that I always joke about is that my position is the epitome of my Mass Communication Degree. I truly feel that I am able to use everything I learned while at CUW, and that such a gratifying feeling. To be able to find a job description that matches your degree is so unheard of, especially with a broad degree like Mass Communication, but it sure was worth waiting for.
Beyond using her Mass Communication degree, Annalise also grew up in Grafton and feels fortunate to work in her hometown.
“It’s so exciting to work for not only my hometown, but a community that is constantly growing. It’s such a unique experience networking with people who have lived in this community longer than I have or welcoming people to the community I grew up in,” she says.
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