Aside from maturing and growing as a person, college is all about figuring out what young adults want to do for the rest of their lives. The Integrated Marketing Communications major in Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications gives students a wide array of areas to go into. Advertising, public relations and graphic design are a few of the many different kinds of areas IMC students can work in. A 2020 graduate, Ryan Nadeau, is a product of the IMC program and utilized all resources that were given to hum during his time at IC.
After coming into Ithaca College as a Business Administration major, he soon made the switch to IMC during his sophomore year, and there was no turning back after that. Nadeau credits a presentation given by Professor Scott Hamula at Nadeau’s first year orientation that first put the idea of IMC into his mind.
Nadeau said: Switching into IMC was the best decision I’ve made as a college student. The combination of business and creative classes was a perfect fit for my interests in graphic design and photography.”
He also credits Professor Hamula with helping him find an internship that met his personal and professional interests. Between his junior and senior year, Nadeau applied to a competitive internship at Live Nation. Professor Hamula wrote a letter of recommendation and Nadeau eventually landed the job,
Nadeau said: “This along with my class made me realize that I wanted to go into the music and marketing industry. I also credit other professors for assuring that transferring into the IMC was the right move for me. They did a really good job bringing in student speakers who spoke about their careers. That gave me hope for IMC.”
The most valuable part of the IMC experience for Nadeau was the semester he spent in LA. He added, “I would recommend this to anyone in the Park School.” During his time in LA, Nadeau had two internships and considered it his best experience during his college career.
Internships along with his semester in LA brought Nadeau to his career after time at IC. Currently, Nadeau works at REV Ithaca Startup Works, a business incubator that focuses on economic growth in the Ithaca area. He focuses on the daily operations of the REV office as well as being the finance operations assistant. These tasks are more aligned toward the business side of IMC. However, in the future, Nadeau’s goals are to break into the creative side of IMC and work in marketing in the music industry.
The help of his professors, his semester in the LA program and his internships all helped Ryan Nadeau get to where he is today in his professional career. The IMC program made Nadeau realize what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, and there is no better gift a student can get from their college experience.