Creative Communications grad lands ‘dream job’ working in animal welfare
It would be fair to say that Jessica Miller has her dream job.
On most days, one friendly dog or another keeps her company in her corner office at Winnipeg Humane Society (WHS).What Miller likes most about her role as CEO, though, is that she is doing something worthwhile.
“We help people. We help people just as much as we help animals,” she said.
Now in her third year on the job, she has always made her living through meaningful work.
Her career path began at Red River College Polytechnic, where she earned her diploma in the 2-year Creative Communications diploma program (commonly known as CreComm) in 2007.
“My interest has always been in having my work mean something. Whether it was for health care, or animals, or a non-profit, or volunteering,” she said. “I have always wanted to know that my time spent away from my family, and in my career, meant something. I never wanted to work corporately. It still doesn’t interest me.”
Before attending RRC Polytech, Miller modeled internationally as a teenager. As she aged, she wondered how to transition herself from the fashion runways to a more long-term career. Journalism struck her as a possibility, and RRC Polytech could teach her. “I had travelled the world. I thought being a reporter and being on camera would be a good transition from modeling,” she remembered.
She was deferred for one year after being accepted into the CreComm program. So, she went straight to The University of Winnipeg and started on the related bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric and Communications, which she later completed after finishing CreComm at RRC Polytech.
In her first year of CreComm, Miller quickly realized journalism wasn’t for her. Public relations, on the other hand, gave her the chance to shape and control the message, which she loved doing.
“Public relations was so ‘me’,” she said. “It was getting out there and talking to people, which I was used to doing. I loved learning how to write press releases. Creating and driving the narrative were what attracted me.”
CreComm was “intimidating”, and the coursework was “hardcore”, she remembers. The instructors often called her out on her mistakes.
“They expected the world from you, and zero mistakes. They put you to the test – in the field and in the workforce. The question was, could you execute what was asked of you?”
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