Chapel Hill, NC
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Nicole attended UNC-Chapel Hill as an undergraduate from August 2018 to May 2022. This is where she found some of her lifelong friends, fiancé and fell in love with anything and everything communication.
She started undecided about her major but quickly chose interpersonal communications after taking a freshman seminar during her first semester at UNC-CH. By the second semester of her freshman year, she added on a second major in environmental studies with a focus in sustainability. This unique combination of majors led to her first internship with the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve as the only communications intern they’ve had on their summer team.
With the credits she was able to transfer from her AP courses in high school, Nicole could have graduated as a Junior. Rather than leaving UNC a year early, she enrolled in the Dual Degree Program in Environment and Science Communication with the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. This is where she began her studies in strategic communications, earning graduate-level credits that she would then transfer as a full-time graduate student. Nicole graduated with distinction in Spring 2022. For a full list of courses Nicole took, click here.
Clubs:
- Sustainable Fashion Initiative
- Carolina For The Kids
- Wealth Management Initiative
Awards and Honors:
- Deans list
- Renwick Award Recipient
Nicole was able to gain a variety of work experiences during her time at UNC-CH. She started working at The Purple Bowl, a local family-owned smoothie and acai bowl shop. She was determined to pay for school independently, so she worked two jobs throughout the school year and would go full-time in the summers. During COVID-19, she took on the role of nannying for two different families to help their young boys prepare for kindergarten, which they would now start in person the following year. She remained at Purple Bowl until she started working for Align Technology. Feel free to browse her other work experiences here.
UNC provided many other work experiences through the opportunity to enroll in cooperative education classes. Nicole gained experience in public relations, marketing campaigns, and science communication. She has been fortunate to work with wonderful clients that agreed to partner with UNC. Some of which included the Nashville Predators, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, Arts Together and other non-profits. You can read more about her experiences with co-ops and the campaigns she has created here.