Dorian Young ’23 | Worth the Work

I came from a small high school, so Hood was very appealing to me. The small classes and attentive faculty are some of the main reasons I chose to study at Hood, along with its close vicinity to Downtown Frederick, where I worked throughout my time at Hood—it’s quite funny, actually. I’ve only ever worked for small businesses downtown aside from two jobs I had post-graduation before joining the Weinberg Center full time. The campus is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen as well. Couple that with great professors and plenty of extracurricular activities, and I was all in.

Many faculty members supported my Hood journey. Specifically in my fields of study (communication arts, English and business administration), one who comes to mind is Jerold VanWinter. I took one marketing class with him my sophomore year, and we remained in touch through my time at Hood and after. My advisors, Dorian Elizabeth Knapp and Brooke Witherow, were also very supportive during my time at Hood, as well as my Departmental Honors advisor Amy Gottfried. I could name close to a dozen or more supportive faculty members, but they all know who they are.

One achievement that comes to mind is my Departmental Honors project that I completed for my English literature major. I began working on it summer 2022, and I have continued my work to this day. It began as a novella that I wrote totaling some 40+ pages. Now, it’s evolved into a 100,000+ word novel that I’m looking to publish in the future. It was a passion project of sorts that I could pursue for credit, and I was able to give a presentation on it at the end of the academic year, which was quite fun.

In black and white, it sounds like a straightforward position, but each day can be quite different. A “typical” day might consist of following up on projects and deadlines, working with my intern on our social media strategy, drafting email copy, collaborating with my colleagues and any other number of marketing initiatives. More often than not, there will be some sort of special task that needs completion. Whether that be meeting directly with media partners, giving a special presentation or even managing an event.

I’ve been able to apply many things I learned at Hood to my career. The nice thing about the communication arts track is that you’re exposed to so many different niches in the industry, and while sometimes employers are looking for a specific skill, more often than not I’ve found that they appreciate a well-rounded individual with vast experience and a wide skill set. I apply a lot of what I learned from writing classes, graphic design, marketing, video editing, multimedia production and more. Gaining real-world experience through my internship at Hood was extremely beneficial, and I would encourage anyone who can partake in an internship for credit to do so, no matter what their field of study is.

I would tell them that the communication arts track is a vast one, and just because they take a course or have an experience with something they don't particularly enjoy, that doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy the whole of it. There were a number of courses I took that I didn’t particularly have an interest in, but I can still apply what I learned from them today, and there were plenty of other courses that I was much more interested in that helped me decide what career path I wanted to pursue upon graduation. Also, as a reminder, you don’t need to have it all figured out at this moment. Half the fun is seeing where opportunities and experiences take you.