Making the World a Better Place with My Communications Degree Essay

Various people throughout my educational pursuit have asked me, â€Å"What can you do with a degree in Communications?† My answer is, I can do many things but mostly I want to deliver messages in order to help others. I am a networker by nature and I want to use that skill in order to help initiate positive change. In order to capitalize on my innate persuasive talents, I feel I must strive to speak to people and not at people. Anyone can talk but a true communicator can extract information and talent from others and shed a positive light on an issue or a cause. I want to be that communicator. The historical progress of communication has gone from face-to-face grunts, groans and body language, to cave paintings, to print media and now to social media whereby you can reach virtually anyone in the world. What has not changed are key points, first you must get the other party to hear your message, secondly the message must be received and interpreted and there must be a form of feedback and participation for the message to be successful. I remember my first State College Communication epiphany was realizing that to be a good communicator, you must be a good listener. Communication, particularly in the social media age is a continuous loop of realization that the sender of a message is simultaneously a receiver of message. Without this sender/receiver loop, a person is not communicating with another. When I think of communication, I look to Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs for answers. Abraham Maslow developed a model presenting human needs; starting with the most basic an d advancing to those that motivate and foster personal development. The stages are biological and physical, Safety, Belonging and love, Esteem, and lastly Self-actualizat... ...tions and 9) Interaction posture-otherwise known as the ability to respond to others in a descriptive, nonevaluative and nonjudgmental manner (Lustig & Koester, 2010). Armed with the tools I obtained at State College, I am ready to go out into this complex and exciting world to be a vessel for social change and economic development. I will assist start-up companies as well as small companies that are struggling to enter social media promotion. As a former non-profit director and volunteer, I will extend my volunteer work to include cultural competencies and strategies to promote health, prosperity and cultural tolerance. Works Cited Miller, K. (2012). Organizational communication; approaches and processes. (Sixth Ed.). Boston Lustig, M. & Koester, J. (2010). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures. (Sixth Ed.) Boston