Media innovation reflections: What did you get out of the program?
In which the first Medill Media Innovation & Entrepreneurship students look back on their experience (one of a series)
Diverse Fields
I think the most important thing is that you’re able to learn from people with diverse backgrounds. In my NUvention team, we had an MBA who has great leadership skills, and I was able to learn a lot from that leadership and his business mind. And we had a marketing student — you would be able to see how quickly he got ideas and how great he was at public speaking. And also from the developers — they’re super creative and they work hard and they always think about the users. You not only learn what the class teaches you, but also from the people you’re working with. — Mengyi (Jenny) Sun, MSJ ’17
Problem Solving
I learned how to identify someone’s problem more than focus on what I think they need. As a journalist before, I knew how to ask people questions — how to listen to them, but I didn’t know how to listen beyond their answer for the underlying issue they were having, and then know how to collaborate with a group and bring ideas back to solve it for them. It goes even further than what I was doing as a storyteller, now I’m trying to be a problem-solver. — Henry Keyser, MSJ ’17
Learning Curve
I think I got a lot more out of it than I ever thought was possible. I’ve learned how to code for mobile web, I’ve learned how to build a startup from scratch, I’ve learned the business of innovation, which is something I never thought I would learn. I interned at Facebook as an undergrad — I thought I knew everything about it, but now I understand that experience a lot more. — Reedhima Mandlik, MSJ ’17
Practice is Key
We would learn stuff in the classes and apply those to our (San Francisco) internships, and get experiences in our internships that we could apply in our classes. It’s a perfect combination of education and practical experience. Any student will think that studying means opening a book and studying, and MIE is not that. All our classes were really immersive. We were doing hands-on practical training, we had to go out and use what we were learning. — Vijeta Ojha, MSJ ’17
Thinking about applying? More information about the specialization, below:
Medill website | Video | Sign up for Medill Media Innovation newsletter | Rich Gordon’s guest column (Entrepreneurial Journalism Educators Network)
