Monday Mentor Minutes – Molly Ziske

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Spartan Molly Ziske shares how she tells stories with research and data as a Senior Consumer Insights Manager.

popo & me 10 18 2013Molly Ziske is currently a Senior Consumer Insights Manager for McCann Worldgroup Detroit. She manages analytics and insight for GM.com (General Motor’s corporate website). Molly not only reports the analytics behind gm.com but provides insights for site improvement and is responsible for all tagging and reporting plans for the redesigned gm.com which launched in February of 2016.

Outside of work, Molly’s favorite things include:

  • Her three daughters (Emerson, a junior at Wellesley College; Carter, a junior at MSU and Claire a freshman at Wayne State University)
  • Her 3 year old puppy, Topopo Bullough Ziske
  • MSU football and the Spartan Marching Band. You can’t have one without the other, right?
  • A good book. Molly is on target to reach her goodreads.com goal of 52 books this year.

Contact Molly:

Email: mcziske@hotmail.com

LinkedIn

Twitter: @mollyziske

 

Monday Mentor Minutes – Elizabeth Battiste

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Spartan Elizabeth Battiste shares her experiences as a Digital Media Strategist at the Michigan State Senate.

Elizabeth JPEGElizabeth’s central focus is to empower others to utilize technology to forge new relationships, build on existing ones, and reach their fullest potential.

She thrives on helping others through some of their most difficult days and approach each day with an empathetic and detail-oriented mindset.

Professionally, she has helped build a successful targeted media firm, bolstered the online presence of numerous organizations and public figures, utilized the latest tools and technologies to make government more transparent and accountable, and empowered others to communicate more efficiently and effectively.

Today she serves as a Digital Media Strategist at the Michigan State Senate. Elizabeth graduated from MSU in 2012 with her Bachelor’s in Organizational and Interpersonal Communication.

Contact Elizabeth-

Email: elizabethbattiste@gmail.com

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Monday Mentor Minutes – Lacretia Davis

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Spartan and Social Worker Lacretia Davis shares how she got her start in the mental health field and became an Infant Mental Health and Early Childhood Therapist.

IMG_3334Lacretia Davis was born in Detroit and attended Detroit Public Schools. She began her journey at Michigan State in 2006 as a Psychology major. After having some challenges and doing more research she decided to switch majors and applied to the Social Work program during her junior year. She says it was one of the best decisions she could have made; social work just seemed to fit her more. After participating in a summer study abroad program in South Africa, where she got to interview the Dean of Social work at one of the universities, Lacretia knew social work was for her.

During her senior year of the undergraduate program, she interned at Child & Family Services (Lansing) in their foster care department. This experience prepared Lacretia for the amount of paperwork she would face in the social work field. However, she also learned that foster care was not a place where she wanted to focus her career. After graduating with her BSW in 2010, she was accepted into the advanced standing Masters of Social Work program at MSU and ended up deferring enrollment until the next year. During her graduate program, she was also working towards obtaining a specialization of Infancy and Early Childhood through the social work department. She successfully obtained her MSW and Infancy and Early Childhood specialization in 2013.

For her MSW internship, she was placed at Early Invention Services (Lansing). This experience along with earning the specialization helped lead her to where she is today. Lacretia has been employed at Hegira Programs Inc. as an Infant Mental Health and Early Childhood Therapist for almost three years. During her employment she has earned a Clinical Masters of Social Work License, Level II Infant Mental Health endorsement and is currently working towards a Level III. Although the job can be emotionally, physically, and mentally demanding, Lacretia thoroughly enjoys what she does. Working with young children and their families in a preventative role has anyways been Lacretia’s passion. In addition to her career, she is passionate about event planning, her family and friends and God. The wonderful thing about the social work field and my job in particular is that it helps her to be forever grateful and draws her closer to those passions. Do what you love and love what you do!

Contact Lacretia:

Email: lac.davis13@gmail.com

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Monday Mentor Minutes – James Roby

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Spartan James Roby discusses the skills civilians and military job seekers need to persevere during the job search.

IMG_2124 Crop James RobyJames H. Roby III was born in Detroit, MI. After attending Cass Technical High School, he went to Michigan State University. While there, he enrolled in Air Force ROTC. Upon graduation, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. James was one of sixteen lieutenants hand selected to be the initial cadre of ‘Gold Bar’ Recruiters.

After completing this assignment, he went to Vandenberg Air Force Base for training as a Missile Launch Officer. Training complete, he was assigned to Minot Air Force Base where he spent four years, three months, twenty-three days, and seventeen hours as a missileer in the 91st Missile Wing. Before leaving, he earned his Masters’ degree from Central Michigan University.

After Minot, he was an instructor at the University of South Alabama. While there, he expanded his role to include teaching at the University of West Florida. This tour of duty was followed by a remote assignment at Clear Air Station in Alaska. James completed his military service at Peterson Air Force Base.

After ‘wandering the wilderness’ of civilian employment, he finally landed at Aon. James has done his share of traveling.  He’s been to World Cities like London and Toronto, seen three icebergs come together 500 miles above the Arctic Circle, and watched dolphins play in the Caribbean.  Still, no matter what, even when he’s not in Detroit, Detroit is in him.

Contact James:

Email: james.roby@aon.com

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Monday Mentor Minutes – Rosaline Kuiper

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Rosaline Kuiper discusses her passions for teaching and how she plans to create systemic change in her local school district.

Roz Kuiper

Rosaline graduated from Lansing Eastern High School in 1993. She went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Special Education from MSU in 1998 where she focused on studying to help students with emotional impairments and also had minors in English and Psychology. She graduated again from MSU in 2008 with an MA in Rehabilitation Counseling. 

She began working for the Lansing School District in 1999 through January 2016 where she taught at Pattengill Middle School, Eastern High School, ran an alternative education setting for suspended and expelled students who received special education support, taught an Emotional Impairment block at the Beekman Center, and also held a brief position at Sexton High School.

She recently was hired at Waverly Community Schools in January 2016 where she will teach at the middle school with 7th and 8th graders.  

Rosaline has been a collaborating teacher for undergraduates from MSU and LCC and is contemplating going on to earn a Ph.D.

Contact Rosaline:

Email: tarotbyroz@gmail.com

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Monday Mentor Minutes – Jessica Colombo

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Spartan Jessica Colombo shares her experiences with the mobile marketing industry.

Jessica Colombo picJessica’s goal is to live her professional life creatively, with an agile and innovative mindset– while making connections and building meaningful relationships that will benefit all parties involved. Her marketing style is one born from simplicity and perfection. She strives to get to the root of the emotion or action, delivering the message in the most concise and effective way possible.

Jessica received her Bachelor of the Arts in Marketing with minors in International Business and French.

Contact Jessica:

Email: jessmcolombo@gmail.com

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Monday Mentor Minutes – João Mattos

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Multinational Spartan, João Mattos, discusses how he turned his passion for social media into a career.

João (Joengagementhn) Mattos was born and raised in Brazil and graduated from Michigan State University in 2008 with a BA in Social Science. He obtained his MA in Advertising from Michigan State in 2012. Today he works as a Social Listening Analyst at GTB (Formerly known as Team Detroit and Blue Hive – divisions of WPP). João loves helping and working with people and is passionate about soccer and social media.

Contact João:

Email: joaomarcos.mattos@gmail.com

LinkedIn

Twitter