strategic communication is the combination of all things communication as we think of it in traditional terms public relations advertising marketing social immersive media all of the tools and strategies that we use to communicate outside of Journalism so where you have journalists that are producing stories strategic communication is taking all of those Communications tools often as storytellers as well but knowing who your audience is who your organization is what your objectives are as an organization and then how to build strategy and content that will reach the audience to achieve what you need to achieve in a very strategic way and in a measurable way so that you know that what you're doing is actually creating the effect that you want from communication the students who come to our program are looking at a number of different things because they're overwhelmingly mid-career working professionals these are people who've been in the business for a while and realize that the world around them is moving in ways that they can't keep up with or are not aware they come to a master's program to elevate their game to gain more skills to do a deep dive into understanding how and why strategic communication works and or they've been in a career they've been in a field and they really want to Pivot into strategic communication you can get into strategic communication whether you want to be in the agency world government or advocacy world or industry as well everybody needs strategic communication which is one of the other really wonderful and fun things about it I think to be a great strategic Communicator there are a couple of really important qualities at the the foundation of all of that is being a good writer the women who started our stratcom program used to refer to it as an MBA without the pesky math so instead of working with numbers you're working with words additionally I think strategic thinking and critical thinking so I I cannot tell you how many times I've had students who said what's the template or what's the rubric you are never going to ask your boss what's the template it's being able to critically analyze the situation understand where you want to go and then be able to process and think strategically through goals objectives strategies and tactics that are going to help you reach your target some people would say a good EQ emotional intelligence so that you really have an empathy and understanding of who is your target audience and where are they coming from and how are you going to communicate with them in a way that either change their behavior or make decisions about the things that you're trying to communicate I believe that a master's in strategic communication has been really important and I'm going to use this through the lens of our graduates it changes the way they think about the way they approach communication day one in our class I say I want you to always start with why to really try to understand why are we doing this why will it work why might it not work why do people want to why would they respond to it which is what a master's or a graduate degree really helps build the skills that help you think critically and help you be able to Think Through the why am I doing this you have to be able to stay on top of it understand the industry understand the technology understand your audiences and that's what you do in a graduate degree and in graduate school to move into management or at a management level position increasingly one of the lines on that call for a job is a master's degree and this is a brilliant degree that's going to give you a really solid foundation that's also really broad that gives you skills that you can take with you into almost any kind of position the kinds of jobs you can get with this strategic communication master's degree again very broadly and which is kind of the fun part about a strategic communication degree or or career even so we have students that go into positions that might be social media or Community manager it can be a community relations director chief metaverse officer they might go into the agency world and become an account executive that graduate degree is going to build out your portfolio of skills in a way that you're ready to level up well when you finish with a graduate degree you're ready to step into more of a management and strategic thinking position you become a leader in the work that you do I think the most important thing that anybody can do to help them find a job in strategic communication is networking use the network of peers that you develop while you're in this program not only with your fellow the students in your cohort but with the faculty and with the many people that we bring into the classroom and the Strategic communication leadership Network that we have it's stunning if you look at the statistics on how many people get a job from responding to an ad versus getting a job because somebody told them about it and they knew somebody there so having that network is probably the most important way to get the job of your choice and one of the other things about getting a strategic communication Masters program from the University of Oregon as you become part of that broader duck family that brand is identifiable and people always say now I walk anywhere in the world and people if you see an Oregon hat or Jersey or anything else go Ducks you know so the duck family is large Global and deep and passionate about sharing that community and that affinity for the University that we represent as people are looking for a strategic communication Masters program start with what is the curriculum how long does it take who are their faculty so are you getting courses that are going to give you the skills you need to go out and get the job of your dreams who are the people that will be teaching you and what is their background they might be experts in a field as somebody in Academia but do they also have people that are teaching from industry that can really give them what's happening in the world right now that you need to be aware of our master's program is unique and exciting for a number of reasons one is that we have a curriculum that is ever evolving and I've brought together a strategic communication leadership Network that are the top communicators of the organization that they represent so we have the Executive Vice President and chief Communications officers of Microsoft of um Nike Columbia Sportswear multiple agencies such as we communication at all men we have government agencies the port of Portland so we have this network of people that meet twice a year who review our curricula with us and we might do a deep dive into a specific class from that group we actually developed the syllabus and the outline of the of the ethics class that we now offer based on the ethical issues that they're facing right now and thinking three five years out what are the things we need to be thinking about that are going to challenge Us and how do we prepare for those today having access to that leadership network is another incredible superpower of our program we've had several of our students get hired by those people because they know what we're giving our students and and my when I met with them and said this is what I want to do I said I want you all to fight for our graduates so if I can have you all wanting our grads I know that our grads will be very employable because we're nestled in the Silicon forest in Portland Oregon which is a magical City the tech industry is is very powerful here the creative industry is unsurpassed I think the Creator and maker culture of this region is really wonderful and we tap into that as instructors for our courses so while you'll have faculty from the University of Oregon teaching you we also had the Executive Vice President of communications for one of the largest health care companies teaching our management and leadership class we had another one of our leadership network members teaching a social change campaigns class and that's all they do is they focus on social change and social interest Community public interest communication so we have the industry top people of the industry teaching classes that are based on what's happening right now so we work really hard to make sure that we are actively engaged with industry that with industry leadership and that we know what the in what industry wants of our graduates our students are a really often drawn to us because of the vibe of Portland Oregon the heartbeat of the people that live here and around here is that they are passion it about social change they're passionate about Innovation they're passionate about ethics and responsibility they're passionate about diversity equity and inclusion but when we're thinking from A diversity equity and inclusion perspective we're always going to be better communicators Bar None companies are grappling with this organizations are grappling with this how do you help them create not only create a narrative but then follow it up with policy and behavior that backs up what they say they want to be it just should be automatically what included in what we think and do but we want our students to always be thinking about it from the perspective of another in an effects perspective when we go out and do the work that we do as communicators and helping the organizations that we work for not just think about it or talk about it but live it be it