Jesse Mercado

For the March 2006 University Preview, the Communication Department asked some of its students to tell a little about themselves and share with the visiting high school juniors why they chose a major in the Communication Department.

The following is a report of Jesse Mercado, double major Communication & Spanish, as interviewed by Danielle Johnson.

Danielle: "Jesse, why did you choose to become a double major in Communication and Spanish?"

Jesse: "I like the Spanish because I come from a Hispanic background and I just wanted to learn it, but also because I wanted to broaden my horizons and create more opportunities for jobs and careers."

Danielle: "What types of careers can you get with a communication and Spanish major?"

Jesse: "Originally I wanted to get into something like TV and/or radio, more in the TV. On campus I have worked on this show called Scriptural Pursuit--I've done some camera work on that--to get experience and to kind of see how a basic program is run. However, I've noticed that I like the service organizations. Recently I've been in contact with ADRA Columbia about a possible position for this upcoming year and that would allow me to use both my Spanish and my Communication majors."

Danielle: "What fun things have you done in Communication?"

Jesse: "One of the things is the Group Dynamics and Leadership class we had. We actually got to, instead of kind of just sitting in classes taking notes and hearing the lectures; we actually got to do two really exciting things. One was we got to do our own project where we had to do a service oriented project. It was a real world environment where we had to get in contact with people and set up venues and sponsors. Our thing was called Cultivate, which was an open mic session. So people could come sing, do spoken word poetry and things like that. We raised money for Polly's Place which is a home for battered women and their children. We were able to help them out. The other thing we got to do was go to [The Adventure Center at] Pretty Lake which is a group oriented thing where we had to do outdoor skills type of things which was really fun."

Danielle: "What is your story? I know you are a transfer student, where was that from?"

Jesse: "I transferred from Northern Illinois University, which is a public school, in northern IL obviously. I just decided I needed a change. It is really crowded. There are so many kids there it is really hard to get classes and you are kind of just a number because the classes are so big. So I decided to come try Andrews. It is fairly close to home and I wanted to come back to a Christian environment and where I'd be on a personal level with professors and students."

Danielle: "It sounds like you've really opened a lot of opportunities for yourself."

Jesse: "There are. I've opened a lot of opportunities for myself and I'm really excited about where I could go."