Kellie Clock, Nick Schrader and Max Chappuis were coworkers and classmates for the past 1.5 years.
They all work at the Office for Education Abroad at Michigan State University. Clock and Schrader are American Semester Program coordinators and Chappuis is an Education Abroad Program coordinator.
Clock began the Strategic Communication program in 2017. It wasn’t long after that Schrader and Chappuis followed suit.
"What really appealed to me about the program was that it was skills I knew I would use –
For Schrader, MSU StratCom proved to be an academic setting that made him excited about learning again.
“I'm just happy that [the program] opened my eyes to recognize that I don't know everything because it makes me want to learn and understand things a little bit more,” Schrader said. “…So far, every class really allowed me to kind of challenge myself in the way that I think.
Clock, who graduated from MSU StratCom in May, enjoyed the opportunity to be in the program with Schrader and Chappuis.
“Having the camaraderie and the ability to bounce ideas off each other in person was really great,” she said.
“We also provided each other a lot of moral support during our busy times at work and during difficult classes. It was especially helpful for Nick and I to be in the program together because we are coordinators for the same program. What we learned in our classes could be applied to our job right away. We were able to collaborate on a lot of marketing and communications initiatives with insight from our StratCom programs, which made our program’s communication strategy much stronger.”