The Envoy

As a multimedia journalist, financial literacy coach and adjunct college professor, Jeanie Ahn leads a multifaceted life. For Ahn, students should not be spending their time in college thinking about the “what ifs,” but rather exploring their passions while time is still on their side.

So she created a class on how to pursue your “what ifs” as a profession.

Offered for the first time this past fall, and currently being taught during the spring 2024 semester, “College to Career: Get Hired!” is a two-credit media course taught by Ahn that prepares junior and senior students for internships and job opportunities in media. Taught in a workshop-style setting, the class provides the building blocks for being career ready, including how to build your own resume, cover letter and portfolio.

The course utilizes each student’s personal skill set to figure out what their niche strength is in media and journalism. Students work with Ahn and occasionally with David Pavlosky, the internship coordinator of Hunter’s Film & Media Department, in one-on-one meetings to craft deliverables that highlight their talents, thereby making them stand out in the job application process. 

“When you’re looking for a job, you just think your resume has to be decent enough, but for a recruiter, it is all about an elimination,” Ahn said. 

“So it’s about making sure that your resume stands out, that you stand out in a way that you are not going to be eliminated in that initial round, and making sure that your best experiences and the best gifts that you have, and talents are highlighted very clearly.”

A student’s final grade in the course is based on several factors, such as their resume, portfolio, online presence and class participation. Ahn also assesses how they worked with peers, progression of interview skills and assigns self-reflection assessments.

Having taught at Hunter for four semesters and counting, the irony for Ahn is that she never intended on being an educator. In fact, coming out of undergrad, she wanted to be in the business end of the music industry. Most of the internships throughout her college career focused on her gaining entry into her profession. But Ahn felt conflicted if music business was the right career path for her.

Ahn eventually deferred from her previous goals and took up miscellaneous jobs, including positions at a hedge fund and within city government, to find her calling. After taking a break to reevaluate her path, she decided to get a magazine publishing job, and took a course in journalism at NYU, the latter where she realized her true passion.

“Journalism is such a unique and beautiful career because you are able to learn how to communicate, and communication is a skill that you need in any industry,” she said. “You can learn how to communicate visually with words, you learn how to merge music and art and everything together in order to tell a story and report on vital information that could add value to their lives.”

As a 27-year-old with no previous journalism experience at the time, the journey was not easy for Ahn, who said she initially struggled breaking into the industry. Willing to work for free, Ahn strategically networked as she built her media career from the bottom up. Her efforts eventually paid off, as Ahn eventually secured prolific jobs at various media outlets specializing in broadcast journalism, financial reporting, and news production.

Following successful stints at news outlets including Yahoo Finance and ABC, Ahn worked freelance gigs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to focus on her family, and started teaching a money workshop for kids ages 5-11 via Zoom using the knowledge from her Yahoo Finance job. Towards the end of the pandemic, a former colleague from Yahoo, Charity Elder, informed her of an opportunity to teach a course at Hunter. The enthusiasm from students sparked a new passion in Ahn’s life: education.

During her initial start at Hunter, Ahn taught the discussion part of Hunter’s “News Literacy” course, where her students learned about the importance of media literacy in the digital age, and how to think critically and evaluate the news they are consuming.

After four semesters of “News Literacy” under her belt, Ahn says the idea to teach a career coaching course was inspired by Kelly Anderson, chair of Hunter’s film and media department. Ahn, who was looking for new opportunities to apply her industry experiences in a classroom setting, volunteered to teach it in Fall 2023.

Ahn’s class was highlighted as a contributor to Hunter College’s ranking as a top three school in the northeast for social mobility by U.S News and World Report.

Ahn utilizes her interdisciplinary passions and skills as a means to provide well-rounded career advising. Outside of Hunter, she is a financial coach for corporate and personal clients, and the founder of the financial wellness course Millionaire Money Habits, offered to both kids and adults.

While she did not teach students to build money habits in her course, Ahn prioritizes the self-reflection and research traits that go into building healthy financial skills by having lectures based on such skills, such as one class based on salary negotiation. However, she said she plans on weaving more financial-based advice in future renditions of the class due to “high demand” from students.

In pairs, students were given a paper detailing a scenario they had to act out, where one person was an employee and the other was an employer. Based on the given scenario, employees asked for a certain salary or benefits increase, and had to figure out how to negotiate depending on the employer’s response. 

Some students who enrolled in the class this past fall applauded it as a great addition to the media studies department.

“The class was insightful and helped me a lot,” said Alyssa Colon, a senior majoring in media studies. “I also loved the sense of community that was made in the class.”

Ahn teaching a class on resume building during the Spring 2024 semester. (Photo Credit: Conor Sullivan)

Current students of the class, like sophomore Nicholas Mawhinney, agree that Ahn’s advice has hugely helped him, particularly in resume-building and interviewing skills.

“She’s a great teacher, very down to earth and realistic while always pushing all of us to be our best,” Mawhinney said. “I’ve gained a lifelong ally that I know will always support me in any way she can regarding myself personally and career-wise.”

In regards to supporting students, Ahn believes that Hunter’s journalism program serves as an esteemed network for aspiring journalists. She referred to the staff as a “talented, diverse and impressive group of professors that care about their students,” including Sissel McCarthy, who she said “championed” the journalism program at Hunter.

Several students secured internships or jobs after taking the course this fall, like Marc Cuadra, a media studies major who says he is interning for course credit at “Sisters Communications,” a company that provides PR services for clients in arts and photography.

Pamela Rozón is another student who found employment after the course. They’re working as a paid intern for Columbia University’s Health Equity program editing videos for their social media.

“I used the skills that I was taught in class to ask for an internship,” she said.

Rozón has a portfolio website, business cards and a “fancy resume” that have made people take them more seriously in their professional endeavors. She also praised the interpersonal skills that were taught like salary negotiation and networking.

[It] “made me become a more confident person when it comes to advocating for myself when finding something I want to do in my career,” said Rozón.  

For young journalists from Black, Hispanic, and other ethnic backgrounds, Ahn emphasizes the importance of their involved presence in the newsroom. In fact, she encourages students of color to join identity-based organizations, like the Asian American Journalists Association and National Association for Black Journalists, to network.

“It is crucial that dependable news and information rise above the rest, produced by individuals who truly represent our diverse society,” Ahn said.

The course will be offered again as two sections in the Fall 2024 semester when more media students can have the opportunity to receive career coaching. On the CUNY Global Class Search, the sections are titled “From Classroom to Career” and “College to Career: Get Hired!”

Ultimately though, one of Ahn’s biggest pieces of career advice is one that students may need to practice outside of class.

 “You can’t let fear dictate your direction,” she said.

Annabelle Underwood and Conor Sullivan contributed to the reporting of this article.