[00:00:00] Cheryl Broom: All right, Alexis and Mariana, thank you so much for being with me on the podcast today.
[00:00:05] Mariana: Thank you for having us.
[00:00:07] Alexis: Thank you for having us Cheryl.
[00:00:08] Cheryl Broom: Yeah, it's great having had worked with both of you for a while as interns to get to know you a little bit more, on the personal side. So I'm super excited for you to share your stories and I think that our listeners will have a lot to learn from them. So, I wanna get started by setting the stage and have you each tell us what you thought your life was gonna be like after graduation and when you were done with high school, if you thought you had it all figured out, what your plans were and where you are now. So let me start with Mariana, let's get started with you and then Alexis, you can tell us your story.
[00:00:44] Mariana: In high school I was in AVID, So I really saw myself going to a fourth year university since in AVID that's what really was like the main goal going to a fourth year university. So community college was never mentioned for me it was more like a backup option. So when it came time to like apply, I mostly focused on four year universities applying to like for Cal State, for UCs and,
[00:01:09] Mariana: I would say community college was more of a backend. It was, I had even put it in my financial aid application just to have it there, but it was never like, oh, let me apply for this too. I'll just like forget about it when I'm already like in a four year university. And there was definitely pressure. When looking into community colleges, since it was just not like the main goal and like every, everyone like around me was applying through four years universities.
[00:01:41] Mariana: So that was like my main goal too, going to a fourth year university and then that being like the main path. So I did end up going to Cal State San Bernardino at that time, which I would say later on it did like lead to like a big shift to going to community college.
[00:01:59] Cheryl Broom: So you had a really interesting path and you're a high school student. You always talked about going to a four year school. You went to Cal State San Bernardino, and how long were you there before you made a move back to community college?
[00:02:12] Mariana: So it was actually the same day I went to orientation. I was already enrolled in Cal State San Bernardino, however, once I like went to a rotation and everything, I saw everybody, like everyone being happy being there, but I was just there like, this doesn't feel like the right fit. I'm not very as happy as like other students already like enrolling to their like classes, talking to like programs and other things that, other resources that the school offered while I was just like walking around looking.
[00:02:48] Mariana: And seeing like, this is not the right school that I really want to go into. So I just went there for orientation and then coming back home. That drive, going back home made me realize I just had to find another option. And I remember Chaffey College being in my financial aid application. And then realize, okay, if it's already in my financial aid application, I'll just apply there when I get home.
[00:03:16] Mariana: And then I did talk to my dad about it and he was like, okay, if you're paying like out of pocket for Cal State San Bernardino, like half of it might as well go to a school that you don't have to like pay as much. And then looking, I was like doing research on Chaffey College and realized I could go there for two years.
[00:03:37] Mariana: So that made me realize, okay, like if I'm getting this free education, the same education, and then able to transfer later to maybe a dream school that I have, I'll like still end up with like the same goal that I want at the end.
[00:03:52] Cheryl Broom: What a mature like story and decision. It's pretty incredible to hear that you made that realization the same like the day of orientation and you listen to yourself and that's really impressive. And we're gonna get to where you are now in a minute. But first I'm gonna jump to Alexis and, and tell us your story and how you ended up at a community college.
[00:04:13] Alexis: Yeah, I mean, my story is very similar to Mariana. Community college wasn't even my first, second or third option. It was actually my fourth option as the backup of backups. Initially my, my pathway was going a completely different route and going to culinary school in New York. But as I soon realized when applying and seeing the cost of what it would take, I realized it was way too much for me personally.
[00:04:39] Alexis: So I decided to pivot and rotate to going to an out of state school and choosing, UC Chicago, where I had, friends and family out there. Same thing happened. I looked at the cost, kind of broke down into what I actually wanted to do, and I realized it wasn't my, it wasn't the best option for me again. And then I went to my third option. Which was Cal State Fullerton which is where I'm now graduating from, but I realized I could achieve everything I wanted to do at Cal State Fullerton, at the community college level. So I decided, Hey, you know what? Let me test, try this. If anything, I can always transfer at a later date.
[00:05:20] Alexis: And so I went to Fullerton College and from there I fell in love with the community college system and I actually decided to do dual enrollment at both Cyprus and Fullerton. And that's something I was able to accomplish to get my associate's degree.
[00:05:36] Cheryl Broom: Wow, I mean both of you, I mean, this is why you're doing so well in your internship and you're such, you're such great interns and students as you both like made really smart decisions for yourself. And I'm really interested, you know, since we are marketers, both of you said that community college wasn't a first choice, a second choice.
[00:05:55] Cheryl Broom: And Mariana, for you, it wasn't even like something you considered. Had you talked to your high school counselors or gotten information from your high schools about community college as an option before, before your college journey?
[00:06:10] Mariana: I would say in high school, community college wasn't really as brought up or like, for example, dual enrollment wasn't as brought up either. When it came to high school, I wasn't really close with my counselor. Matter of fact, the only time I talked to them was when scheduling classes for next year.
[00:06:29] Mariana: So that's one thing I wasn't as communicated with them when it came to my AVID teacher, community college, the way he mentioned it, it was more of a backup plan. And as well, he did mention how when it came to community college it would like backtrack the amount of period you would be like in school.
[00:06:51] Mariana: For example, he did mention like students are there for more than two years, and it does take a while for them to like transfer, which I did see in my process. However even though I was there for like one year extra at community college, it still led me to a good path and like a good transition to a school, for example, UCLA that I'm now attending.
[00:07:16] Mariana: So yeah, I would say I'm still grateful for community college even though like it was so brought down in high school, it literally brought me to like a lot of opportunities further on.
[00:07:27] Cheryl Broom: It's so interesting that you say that cause you're, you sound so much like me back in the nineties, like I, I don't remember my high school counselor at all. I would've thought that these things had changed by now. Like, I never talked to a counselor and no one ever brought up community college. Like it was not discussed.
[00:07:44] Cheryl Broom: And so here we are, you know, 30 years later you'd think these have changed, but in your case it hasn't. And what about for you, Alexis? Did, did you have conversations in your high school?
[00:07:56] Alexis: So I luckily did have those conversations very early on. I think one of the things that benefited me a lot was that, Fullerton College is right across from my campus, so I would have to walk less than a straight away to be at the, at the community college. And so I was luckily able to take a lot of advanced college placement classes in high school.
[00:08:18] Alexis: So I was able to have the opportunity to take nutrition and to take culinary at the community college level while still being in high school.
[00:08:28] Cheryl Broom: Are you still taking culinary classes?
[00:08:30] Alexis: Unfortunately I not as much anymore, but I still do cook regularly at home.
[00:08:35] Cheryl Broom: I just had an idea like, next time we have a company retreat, we need to have Alexis cook for us. We'll hire you, we'll give you a job. So you, I mean your experience was location, like you saw the school, you know, it was there, it was part of your daily life. Now that you've worked with community college marketing and have been to community college yourselves, How would you better communicate this to high school students?
[00:09:04] Cheryl Broom: What advice would you have for either community colleges themselves or for high schools?
[00:09:09] Mariana: I would say for high school students to just, it does take time to figure things out, but it's okay. Take your time and choose a path that makes sense for you and not just what others expect. Cause I know for me, when it came to AVID, I saw everyone getting accepted to four year colleges and it was like big name colleges as well.
[00:09:30] Mariana: So that made me want to also go into like four year college, straight out of high school when I end up taking my time, taking a step back and realizing that I wanted to go to more of like an option that's better for me financially rather than what would lead me to debt more like further on in like my college years.
[00:09:56] Cheryl Broom: Right. I mean, that's an important point I think, like celebrating community college attendance as a success, and I think that's a good thing that counselors and faculty at high schools can do, but also community colleges themselves could market that they have high school graduates from all the different high schools.
[00:10:19] Cheryl Broom: I mean, I could even see that as a social media campaign, like congrats to the LaCosta Canyon High School students coming to our school, or the, the 400 students from Oceanside High School that are coming to Mira Costa. And that can build, that builds that social proof that there's a lot of people making this decision that you're not missing out.
[00:10:39] Cheryl Broom: You're gonna be among your peers making this really smart choice. So I think that's important. When I was in high school we used to, they used to publish in the newspaper, the local newspaper, all the places that students were going to, and they left off Mira Costa and Palomar Colleges, our local colleges, they didn't even include them.
[00:10:58] Cheryl Broom: And that's changed now today it is included when you have a list of like high schools, people are going to, they include the colleges, but the colleges had to ask like over and over again, can we please be included on this list? Because you're still going to college and it's a big deal. And it needs to be celebrated.
[00:11:15] Cheryl Broom: So I think that's good advice is let's sell, let's make this a norm. Let's make this something that we celebrate. And what about for you, Alexis? Like, was this, how, what advice would you have? How would you approach it differently?
[00:11:27] Alexis: Yeah, I mean, I completely understand and get where you're coming from Cheryl. I think in having worked with community college marketers, I think one information is one key point is not waiting for students to come to you. It's putting that information publicly available for them to see cause I feel like if you have even just the slight attention of five seconds of their time, like, okay, I can see that, hey, this may be a better option for me just from a quick glance.
[00:11:57] Alexis: I know for me, once all the information was provided to me, community college was the right option for me. But before then, I didn't have my own counselor coming out and discussing this with me. So until I had all the information, did I realize, Hey, you know what? This was the right choice.
[00:12:15] Cheryl Broom: So I, I'd love to talk more about your personal experiences at community colleges 'cause I think this might help some of the marketing professionals listening to the podcast with their own campaigns. Looking back at your younger self, what were some things that would have impacted you to hear, like what do you wish people had told you so that you had learned more about this option from the get go. 
[00:12:40] Alexis: Something that can definitely kind of help and encourage students towards that direction is visibility and community. I think those things are what kind of drew me initially to universities and to culinary school. Why? Because I would see on social media all these programs that they would have this community that would welcome students to come in and join their university or their college specifically.
[00:13:04] Alexis: And I think oftentimes community colleges lack that visibility just because maybe they don't post as often socially, where I feel like if they did more so often, they would've have a lot more students within their own area or even outside the area decide to come to them.
[00:13:21] Cheryl Broom: Yeah, that's great advice. So as a high school student you know, you're looking for experience, you're looking for community. Am I gonna fit here? Am I gonna make friends? Am I gonna have fun? Am I gonna have a college experience? And you are on social media seeing those things and that's a pretty easy place for colleges and universities to put, to put these things up.
[00:13:43] Cheryl Broom: Okay. And I know I, I, I'd be like wowed by New York and Chicago too. Like that's exciting. Like maybe we wanna feel some excitement. Students need that excitement. And what about for you, Mariana? 
[00:13:58] Mariana: Yeah, I would also agree with Alexis, like as coming as a first gen generation student, seeing, well fourth year universities give out, like the college experience, the community, the clubs, the opportunities, for example, big internships and things like that made me like want to lead more to a fourth year university as when it came to community colleges I did not see that college experience, that social life. Different classes that they offer that would make me want to go straight to high school, to community college. 
[00:14:38] Cheryl Broom: I think that's a, I think that's interesting that you say like, internships, cause you started when you were a community college student and when I worked at a, at a college and I would sometimes give tours to parents when our student ambassadors weren't available. And I'd take them by the internship office and I'd take 'em by study abroad and it'd always be the same thing.
[00:14:59] Cheryl Broom: they'd always be like, wait, you've, you've studied abroad, like you've internships. Like I think there was this perception that it's like you're just gonna come take a class and go, and there's like nothing else to do. And so I think our colleges can do a better job of showing some of these auxiliary services, like, like the clubs and the all the fun things that there are to do at the college and the internships and the career center and the study abroad, and. There's so much else going on, right?
[00:15:30] Mariana: Yeah, when like going to Chaffey College, I didn't even know they had to study abroad until I got an email saying, you can study abroad in Mexico and take a class of Chicano Studies. And like they would even like pay for it too. So that's something that really caught my eye. But I didn't even know before going into community college.
[00:15:48] Cheryl Broom: Did you do that? Were you able to do it? 
[00:15:51] Mariana: No, I wasn't.
[00:15:53] Cheryl Broom: Oh.
[00:15:53] Mariana: It was in the summer. I was already applying to a four year university, so it would, it wouldn't like align. 
[00:16:01] Cheryl Broom: I'm already seeing like an ad, like a social campaign in my head. Like all the things that you like, check in it off study abroad, internships, like these are experiences that people are looking for. 
[Ed Tech Connect Ad]
What other advice would you have for marketers? I mean, you're both seeing our campaigns and, and live the experience.
[00:16:18] Cheryl Broom: If you were a community college marketer, what would, what would you do? How would you focus on high school students.
[00:16:24] Alexis: One thing I would like to add is to take full advantage of relationships. The reason being is at a community college, you have the advantage of being a lot smaller so you can get a lot more personal and close to your students or to people that are interested in coming into your college as you feel kind of like a special one of one versus when you're at a university with five to 10,000 more students, you feel like you're just one of many.
[00:16:52] Mariana: Yeah, so when it comes to marketers and like marketing community colleges, I would say they do promote a lot of like the support, the resources and opportunities, but I would also like to see like promoting like a clear guidance, like for example, step by step on how to go and seek those like supportive resources and opportunities.
[00:17:18] Mariana: For example, when it comes to EOPS, that stands for extended opportunity and program services, I would say like a step by step guide, how to like lead to that program and how to apply to it and what students or criteria they need to like follow to lead to that program.
[00:17:39] Cheryl Broom: So I mean, we really, I think the big takeaway I'm getting from both of you is: You can't expect the high schools to give the guidance, right? You need to go as a college and provide some of that guidance yourself. Whether that's making a personal connection, being on campus, doing social media, like we can't assume that the high schools are telling students what we think they are. And you both come from areas where there's lots of colleges. So you think that you would get something from your high school counselors, but you really kind of did it on your own and you're ambitious. Right. And and a and able, so I'm sure there's a lot of other students out there that might need a little nudging.
[00:18:23] Cheryl Broom: So they need a little extra help. Well, before we wrap up the conversation, I did wanna change paths a little bit and talk about your experience here at GradComm and what it's been like now working in the marketing space and you know, what you, what you've learned and how your experience has shaped the way you think about community colleges, but also about marketing.
[00:18:47] Alexis: For me, I've very much appreciated this internship. I feel like it's been a wonderful, unique experience that I don't think I would find elsewhere. GradComm as a team has been very well receiving. I, me and Mariana we've been welcomed. We've been assisted wherever needed. We've also been guided into pathways, just beyond the internship and kind of who we want to become after.
[00:19:13] Alexis: And I know for me, I've developed a much more, appreciation and respect for marketing after seeing how much effort and work is put in, especially how much passion as well for trying to improve not only the lives of everyone around us, but also other students when we reach out through our messages.
[00:19:32] Alexis: And I, I've initially coming from a finance background and administration. I was very different in perspective of like, Hey, I'm focused on numbers, I'm focused on facts, I'm focused on the straight points, but with marketing, it's kind of helped me expand my vision of, Hey, what else do I need to factor in?
[00:19:54] Alexis: How can I make people more comfortable? How can I help people? And how can I be the best version of myself? And I've, I don't think I would've achieved as much as soon as I have through all the experiences, whether it was working with a lot of the team members on projects for clients or working on some of the GradComm marketing on the inside, as well as working on a lot of the individual kind of new in innovative ideas of how AI is applying to the current space that we're at, and I think working at GradComm is a, has been a significant impact on my life and I feel Mariana has had the similar experience as well.
[00:20:43] Mariana: Yeah, I would say, yeah, going back to Alexis GradComm has very like shifted my way into marketing. When it came to marketing, I thought it was only just like looking into a brand, but it's more than that. It's like the storytelling behind it, theÑhow it could affect each society in different ways. So it really opened my mind more when it comes to marketing and then also in general, like marketing is everywhere and even like looking outside, like trees can be marketed in a certain way, like different types of like what it like brings to the whole like community overall.
[00:21:25] Mariana: And yeah, GradComm has like opened my eyes overall just. Seeing how it works within a team as well, and like opening up my skills, for example, with social posts or like analyzing the background of that social post and how it could affect the audience in many ways. So GradComm has helped me, like overall, just even like personality wise, just open up myself more, andÑ. From being like timid to more open and with the team and just overall increasing my ways within even like talking in general. I don't talk as much, but the GradComm team has helped me, like even with my shyness with behind, like showing myself in the camera more. Doing reels for them and overall just growing with the team.
[00:22:18] Cheryl Broom: Oh, well I, that's so great. I love to hear, I feel like I'm gonna cry hearing your guys' experiences. So Nice. And I have to say any, we have people listening. One project I'll remember the most from both of you is, Mariana had a day in the life video when she first started that that actually ended up inspiring us to sell the process you used for Day in the Life videos we're like, this turned out so good.
[00:22:45] Cheryl Broom: This is how we can approach it. And I remember you taking a calculus test and walking by turtles, so see I like, can remember your video and, Alexis made an amazing AI generated video. Our first AI generated video, and that's now another product that we have is we're making videos similar for other clients, using some of that creativity that you brought.
[00:23:10] Cheryl Broom: And I was able to show your video at a conference to about 200 people who all applauded, applauded when it was done. So, it's been great having students. I think for those marketers who are listening out there, I encourage you to bring interns into your marketing department on campus.
[00:23:27] Cheryl Broom: Cause you never know what, what you guys are gonna bring. It's always, it's a great surprise and a lot of fun to have you both. So, last question for you. So what's next? Where are you headed after you graduate? Like, what are your plans now? And it's okay if you don't know still.
[00:23:45] Mariana: Yeah, so after I graduate I do want to continue working with the marketing. So leading on, I do wanna go into like the marketing field also, like technology has, a big interest in me as GradComm has like brought it more into like AI and Amy that has brought interest into me into working, like with marketing and tech.
[00:24:09] Mariana: So I do want to like go into the job market and just continue on working with marketing.
[00:24:16] Alexis: So at the moment I've been fielding a couple of offers. One being a financial analyst as well as I'm hoping to join maybe a community college in the marketing department as an assistant to start off, but hopefully maybe later moving to administration as I'm kind of determining my options.
[00:24:35] Alexis: And so that's currently my goal right after graduating this semester. And so I'm hoping to apply a couple more jobs to see kind of what's out there and what I can accomplish and where I see myself in the next three to five years.
[00:24:53] Cheryl Broom: So am I hearing Alexis, you already have a job offer.
[00:24:57] Alexis: Yes.
[00:24:58] Cheryl Broom: Wow, congrats. And this is a tough market right now. And look at, you already not even graduated and getting offers. That is so exciting.
[00:25:06] Alexis: Yeah, it's one of three offers that I'm pending on and so I'm hoping to complete a couple more within the next month or so. And kind of seeing what's out there because although I love kind of the idea of being a financial analyst and some of the work kind of being more so geared towards my skills and abilities.
[00:25:28] Alexis: I feel like I can maybe test myself and do something more, or maybe find something I can appreciate a little more.
[00:25:35] Cheryl Broom: Well, wouldn't it be cool if both of you ended up as community college marketers and then you could come back and hire GradComm. Well, thank you both so much. I loved hearing about your stories and where you are now and you have a lot to be proud of and are great examples for other students. I really appreciate you taking the time. For those of you listening on a Friday afternoon to college students giving their Friday afternoon to be on a podcast and it's been great talking to both of you.
[00:26:06] Mariana: Thank you. Thank you for having us. It was. This was an experience as well that I could like tell others in that I did a podcast with GradComm.
[00:26:17] Alexis: Yeah, I would also love to give appreciation. I know at the end of the day, Cheryl, everything comes down to you and you've been able to give us this wonderful opportunity to work alongside you guys. Learn from you guys. Same with Chris and a lot of the other team members as well, and, and management. I can't be more thankful that I was able to have two whole years with you guys.