This past week, I had the honor to attend the HUABJ speaker series that featured Howard Alum, Erin Winters. Personally, I am a big follower of Erin’s journey and was super excited to finally get to meet her and learn more about her ups and downs. When I first heard about Erin it was through the Kelly Ripa contest when she was searching for her next guest host for “Live with Kelly”. The school of communications was truly rooting for Erin and me being a journalism student as well, I was super excited to see that she made the top twenty. After that, I continued to follow her and I was super impressed with her drive to continue participating in the contest.
I think what stood out the most about her talk was that instead of applying for the typical jobs through a cover letter and resume, much of her career has been through a contest that she found online. For example, her first job out of college was as a spokesperson and she won it through a contest. From there she has participated in a ton of different contest and of course, she has faced her share of rejection and embarrassment, but it has all led up to the job she currently has. Erin is now the FIRST ever digital correspondent for Natural Geographic. Thousands of people applied to this contest, but after months of deliberation she was chosen to be in the top 3 and was flown out to New York to compete. Surprisingly, I didn’t follow this contest as in depth so I was unaware of how rigorous it was. In short, the contest was 3 days long and the contestants had to compete to write, film, edit a story and create a digital sort for the site. Although the challenge wasn’t easy, Erin worked extremely hard to appear as if she wasn’t stressed or worried. Instead, she appeared confident and handled the high paced environment with ease. She said a major part of why she was chosen to work with the company was because she was positive and did not let the circumstances affect her mood. Instead, they admired her drive and go-getter attitude. This spoke to me because often times I can be very negative. But this career is constantly looking for people that will crack under the pressure. Once they see that you are not able to handle something or if you appear as ungrateful that rules out your chances. Instead, you must show that although something may not be easy you have been given the proper training in order to succeed. I truly love how although Erin is very young she doesn’t let her age or maybe lack of experience as an older person define her.
Lastly, her talk truly inspired me because I am currently a graduating senior. I am constantly worried about the next steps in my journey, however, one thing that Erin stressed was living in the moment. At the end of the day, your journey is already defined. Yes, you may face rejection but guess what there are thousands of other opportunities. Furthermore, seeing that Erin is relatively recent grad she still has a long road ahead of her. But her wisdom, and her reminding us that we have time really did make me feel more confident about the school year. At the end of the day, college goes very quickly so we must soak in the moment. I am excited to continue following Erin and seeing her next steps.
Nayo Campbell 