For six years, ComArtSci was my home.
There was something fitting about beginning college in a major that was also just starting. When I arrived at Michigan State University in 2020, I was among the first students to call public relations my major, and in many ways, we grew up together.
As my education continued, so did my understanding of what public relations could be. It became the lens through which I understood relationships, the responsibility we carry in how we communicate and the role our work can play in serving the public good.
I also found professors and peers who challenged me, believed in me and shaped so much of who I was becoming.
No one shaped my journey more than Chuqing Dong, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations (AD+PR). As an undergraduate, she invited me onto a research project examining cannabis companies’ corporate social advocacy on Instagram. I had never pictured myself as a researcher, but working alongside her opened a new way of thinking about public relations. I found myself drawn to asking more questions and seeing where they could lead.
Research gave me another way to be curious about people. Behind the journal articles and data were questions about why people communicate the way they do and what those choices mean for relationships.
That curiosity carried me farther than I ever expected. If someone asked which experiences had the greatest impact on me in AD+PR, I would probably ask how much room they had, because I could easily give them a 20-chapter book.
I’ve presented my research at the International Public Relations Research Conference in Florida, MSU Ignite Talks and BledCom 2025 in Slovenia. Studying abroad at Chung-Ang University in Seoul widened my understanding of culture and connection. I became an award-winning published researcher and, in April 2026, had the privilege of sharing my research journey with the MSU Board of Trustees.
Each experience widened my perspective and made me even more certain that I wanted to keep listening to the people in it.
My thesis brought so much of that learning together.
I interviewed 38 U.S. strategic communicators to understand how, if at all, they were having difficult conversations about generative AI at work and what concerns and expectations shaped their willingness to enter them. Their experiences revealed how vulnerable conversations about generative AI use can feel when they touch creativity, competence, judgment and professional value.
I wanted my research to help people enter those conversations with greater confidence and care. What would it look like to feel safe enough to admit what you don’t know or ask a question? How might people leave those conversations with a deeper understanding while navigating something none of us has fully figured out?
I came to see that communication’s greatest power isn’t having the perfect answer — it’s creating the relationships and spaces that allow people to learn from one another.
Through the thesis process, I also realized how much I needed to let myself learn without measuring every step against perfection. The same openness I was studying — feeling safe enough to ask questions, admit what you don’t know and learn from others — became important to my own experience as a researcher.
Receiving the Institute for Public Relations’ The Grossman Group 2026 Master’s Thesis of the Year Award fills me with more gratitude and joy than I quite know how to put into words. To have work that means so much to me celebrated in this way is incredibly special, and I’m deeply grateful for this recognition. This December, I’ll receive the award in New York City. It affirms the curiosity that first led me into research and encourages me to keep building bridges between scholarship and practice.
I will always be both a researcher and a PR professional. ComArtSci empowered me to bring those parts of me forward and showed me how meaningful communication can be when we approach people with care.
Six years later, I still have plenty of questions.
I think that may be the point.