Connect with Andrea

Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Republic, Missouri
Major:
Advertising & Public Relations

What advice do you have for a new Drury student?

How is Drury preparing you for life after college?

Describe life at Drury.

What is one life lesson you'll take from Drury?


Student Spotlight: Meet Andrea Allen

Take college seriously, but have fun.

Those are words of advice from Andrea Allen, a senior Advertising and Public Relations major from Republic, Mo.

"Observe the details. Life goes really fast, so I think just observe the places around you, the people around you and what's going on around you." And according to Andrea, there's usually plenty going on around students at Drury. "There's always something going on, something to do. For example, a speaker coming to campus, a concert, a ball game, a student organization that's doing something - it's always different."

Besides student organizations, Drury's freshmen Alpha Seminar classes are a great opportunity to make friends. Andrea recalls that her Alpha class was taught by none other than Drury's Dean of Academics, Dr. Charles Taylor.

"He was so cool! You would never know that he had such an important job. He was so laid back - he was into music." Want to know one of Andrea's most memorable course lessons during her Alpha course? Her class spent an entire unit learning about chocolate and cocoa farming, which included a field trip to Springfield's Askinose Chocolate. Learning can be so delicious! They also went on several lunch outings together as a class.

Getting Involved to Get Ahead

Andrea recommends not only getting involved on campus, but also looking for groups that relate to your profession, such as professional groups on campus that link students to a professional group in Springfield. She also says to try and meet people that have the same goals as you so they're not holding you back from your ultimate goal.

And really, Andrea has plenty of experience being involved in professional groups on campus that lead to real-world experience. Last year, she was a member of the Ad Team, where her group spent months brainstorming ideas for a $100 million dollar ad campaign for retail department store JCPenney. Students worked together creating the plan and shooting commercials and photos before traveling to Kansas City to present their project to real JCPenney executives.

"We worked on the campaign twice a week, sometimes till 3:00 in the morning just working super hard trying to make it the best we could."

Preparing for Life After Drury

As a senior, Andrea realized many of her classes focused on life after college to prepare students to start their dream career. "I now have an awesome portfolio to go on a job interview to say 'here's what I can do and here's what I've done'," she says.

She also credits Drury professors with teaching students how to budget money, etiquette during job interviews, and how to accept a job offer.

In fact, one professor helped Andrea secure an internship that put her in the heart of her dream career. With the help of Dr. Regina Waters, chair of Drury's communication department, Andrea received an internship in the Media Relations Department at St. John's hospital in Springfield, Mo.

The internship started during the tornado crisis in Joplin, Mo., and Andrea was placed in the Incident Command Center working alongside the COO of St. John's. That experience gave her skills that cannot be learned sitting in a classroom.

"Once you're really in that job and you're writing something real and it's not just to turn into your professor - it's to turn into your local media - I think that's awesome," she says. "I think I became a better writer, a more clear and concise writer because of it."

Discover More: