Personal Brand Development

My Personal Brand Development @ Western Technical College

From first starting at Western Technical College, I never understood how much knowledge I can truly gain. I always find myself thinking to myself “wow, if only I had this knowledge back then.” And by back, I mean just about anytime in the past outside of two years. Throughout the program courses I have adapted skills I never thought I would be able to confidently have. I never thought I would be able to present a formal presentation in front of a class and actually do good at it. Don’t get me wrong, there are times where I still get nervous and maybe stumble a little bit, but that’s okay! Why? Because from where I started to where I am now is an accomplishment in itself and it only gets me more excited to see how much more I will progress in the next 2 years!

This very website in which you are reading this post from is also proof of some of the work I am most proud of because..well.. I CREATED IT. It adds benefit to my personal brand by me becoming a more proficient marketer and creating an opportunity to stand out from the rest. I always had interest in creating a website, who knew all I had to do was enroll in the marketing program at Western Technical College.

While there are a thousand of experiences similar to these I could share, the one that stands out the most for me in my experience with personal branding is the connections I have made at school. While I have made several LinkedIn connections, that’s not exactly what I am talking about..

I have made connections with so many individuals that have truly impacted my life in ways that I would never imagined. From making new friends in the classroom, advisers from my club experience in DECA, and most importantly my personal relationships with my professors. Learning within the classroom I have came to realize is much easier when your professors don’t treat you as just another student coming to the classroom. These professors at Western truly want me to achieve great things both inside and outside of the classroom. They motivate me to push myself to creating the best version of myself I can be. They want me to succeed during the school year and even way beyond when I graduate.


A personal favorite of mine is when I was either in my first or second semester here, and for a general speech class we were to watch Ted Talks and review our thoughts about them. One of them I watched really stood out to me as I experienced a moment similar to the way it was mentioned in the video. It is something that was so little that motivated me to push so much further in being successful. I could spend several paragraphs explaining the video, but please take a moment and watch it for yourself, you won’t regret it.

Why is this so meaningful to me? Well, around the same time I first saw this video, I was talking with an instructor of mine after class and she had just briefly mentioned on how she could see me achieving many great things in the future. She spoke about how she saw me as one of those students that goes above and beyond and looks forward to seeing all the great things I accomplish. (Now maybe I don’t have it word for word quoted, but it was something similar.) While there was a little more to the conversation, this is something that I will honestly probably never forget because I never thought I would have someone (who I didn’t even know that closely yet) see that potential in me. I came from a background of a GPA in high school of no greater than 2.5. I got a 3.9 GPA in college that very same semester of being at Western. So, for those of you reading not seeing a greater end game in the future just remember to keep pushing. You don’t need a lollipop moment to find this answer though. In terms of the video, this happened to be a lollipop moment for me though, along in the video it mentions how some people never even realize they created that moment for them. So, in that case, I just want to give a shout out to my professor who created my very own lollipop moment. Thank you, Shelly, for always seeing the potential in not only me, but all your students. (You know who you are)

Until the next chapter..

 

-Austin

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