COM 117

Laura Foti is a Newhouse alum who came to speak to our COM class to share bits and pieces of her journey through life up to where she is today. Currently she works for Deloitte as a business technology analyst. She mentioned what she most enjoys about her job is that she gets to think about how technology can solves problems for notable Fortune 500 companies. Foti talked extensively about her close relationship with her father, and how his disability and ability to overcome it has shaped both of their lives. She mentioned how her love for story telling originated from her father. He would draw random pictures at a restaurant and they would go back and forth talking at length about the doodle drawn on a napkin.

Her father’s love for storytelling and stories in general would ultimately manifest itself in Foti and compose her academic foundation as she applied and ultimately was accepted into Newhouse. But, before she would entertain the idea of coming to school, she set out to do something adventurous and what her parents dubbed, “crazy.” Foti lived in Argentina in a gap-year before she attended Syracuse. In that time, she became fluent in Spanish and wrote for local newspapers, documenting her experience as if it were her own public journal. She still looks extremely fondly upon her time and experiences she had in Argentina that year before college. Once she finally returned to the states and got to Syracuse, she got herself involved with The Daily Orange, CitrusTV Noticias and the PR Firm, Hill Communications.

All of the background she provided us with eventually allowed her to preach some general advice to the class. She emphasized to us: “Get out there and tell your story.” Moreover, tell people who you are and where you want to be, and do it in an effective/appealing manner. Foti said that your ability to do this will enable to find people who relate to you and who can help you get to where you aspire to be. She made a point to share with us what her grandfather shared with her regarding her post-college job search: “Do something that makes you uncomfortable,” he said. Foti followed that up by saying that she still believes she hasn’t fully grasped what she likes/doesn’t like, and that there’s still so much out there for her to try. Briefly, she elaborated on the importance of networking and choosing the persona you want to present to people. “Create your own opportunities,” Foti said.

Whilst the advice she gave was very simple, I also found it very valuable. The concept of having complete control over the impression you make upon someone who could dictate your future with a job opportunity or whatever it may be, is a very intuiting opportunity that must be taken advantage of. Ultimately I found her entire talk to be enlightening and I’ll certainly be taking her advice with my life and opportunities going forward.

I went to see Norie Quintos, an executive editor at National Geographic Traveller, speak to a large group of Newhouse students. Quintos elaborated on the construction of a good story. She mentioned how even though she’s been writing professionally for quite some time, she cringes as the sight of her earliest professional work. She mentioned how she has evolved as a writer and she has come to realize the best way for her to paint a picture with her words is to nearly eliminate the use of adjectives in her writing. Furthermore with her point, she said that she has made an effort to eliminate the use of exclamation points at anytime believing that she could better express her excitement with words rather than a simple mark.

Quintos certainly made an effort to distinguish the difference between National Geographic magazine and National Geographic Traveller. While the two magazines fall under the umbrella of the same company, the voices and themes prevalent in both periodicals differ. Traveller is a magazine that will offer the perspective of someone who is curious about travelling, someone who is well travelled, and a focus on travel that isn’t necessarily luxurious. Quintos circled back around to her previous point of distinguishing the difference in National Geographic and National Geographic Traveller. She mentioned that a focal point in the production of Traveller is to stay true to its roots. Those roots being: Presentation of stunning photography, superb quality of writing and an impressive array of stories.

Towards the conclusion of her appearance, a question from the audience was fielded regarding the concept of pitching a story. Quintos went on to explain in great detail the process of pitching and the best way to go about it. She was adamant initially about “limiting yourself.” Her first point was that you must limit yourself to three paragraphs to get your pitch and message across. Should it take longer to convey your message, the idea probably is too complicated and unrealistic. She recommended the use of short, quick points to get your message across clearly and effectively. Long, elaborated points detract from the central core of the idea being pitched and usually results in a rejection. Finally, she concluded by stressing the importance of making sure you share your connection with the story you would like to work on for Traveller. Ideally, one would have a deep, intimate connection with the project they would like to embark on and essentially that makes the pitch that much more effective and easy to write about.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Ms. Quintos and the valuable points she had to make to a crowd of aspiring journalism/communication students. She was willing and able to put herself in our shoes and give us applicable advice compared to what she might say to an experienced photographer looking to advance their career.

Laura Foti is a Syracuse University Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni who took time to speak to our COM 117 class on October 1st. She began her interest in communications as a young girl. Her father, being limited in the activities that he could engage in with Foti due to his severe rheumatoid arthritis, taught her how to tell stories at a young age. Foti developed a liking to communications and looked up to her father, who began his career as a journalist and then switched to Public Relations. After graduating from high school, Foti had a yearning to travel and expand her cultural experience before attending college. She took a gap year in which she lived in Argentina with host families and blogged about her experiences being an American adapting to the foreign culture. She even had the opportunity to dance in the Carnival. Also while in Argentina, Foti wrote stories in Spanish for an Argentinian newspaper and discussed her good and bad experiences living in the country. She even began getting recognized by locals as the American girl who wrote the interesting stories for their local paper.

When Laura Foti finally arrived at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, she was quick to involve herself in many clubs and organizations.  She wrote for the Daily Orange, reported for the “Noticias” segment of Citrus TV, became a member of the PRSSA, and eventually went on to become the director of Hill Communications. Foti also took on many internships throughout her four years of college that helped prepare her for a career. For example, she interned for a baseball team filming segments, editing footage, and taking photos of their games. She also interned with GE in digital marketing. Through working for these college organizations and interning for these companies, Foti learned a lot about networking and how to make connections with people. She shared advice with us on how to improve the way we present ourselves to future employers. For example, she encouraged us to “connect with people and tell them your story.” She also said that we should learn now how to tell a good story because that is a skill that can get you a job someday. When speaking to future employers or networking in general, we should find things in common with those people and use them to spark conversation. Lastly, she told us that we create our own opportunities, so we need to be persistent in finding them.

Today, Foti works for Deloitte as a business technology analyst. Foti works with new and emerging medical technologies like, for example, a wrist band that could forever change healthcare as we know it. She loves her job because while it has very much to do with business, she is also frequently able to apply the public relations skills she learned while at Syracuse University. She chose a business-oriented profession because it very much interested her and she believes that the happiest people are the ones that take risks. There is a great deal of uncertainty to her job now. She does a lot of traveling and essentially has a new job to work on every time she checks her email. Everyday, Foti deals in storytelling when she talks to clients, figures out what they want, and then helps them find compatible products while logically explaining the products to them. She encouraged us to always think about how we can utilize digital products to make our lives easier. The more digitally knowledgeable we are, the more impressive we will be to employers, especially in this day and age where mostly all communication is done digitally and there is constantly new products coming out.

I thoroughly enjoyed Laura Foti’s presentation because it was very informative and helpful to me especially, being as I am a public relations major myself. It encouraged me that although she was a public relations major, she was able to successfully find a job that dealt with more than just PR skills. This means that when I graduate, I will have an array of career options to choose from. She gave great advice regarding how to make connections with people and network with professionals. After Foti’s presentation, I am truly excited to see what my future as a public relations professional has in store for me.

Laura Foti, a recent Newhouse Alum, came into our COM 117 class to tell us about her story. She began by explaining how her father has rheumatoid arthritis which resulted in him being physically disabled. She is a very active and athletic person but her father couldn’t physically participate with her in various childhood activities due to his disability. They made up that loss of connection with storytelling. Her father would draw pictures while they both made up stories based around those images. In high school Laura found her voice, and realized that communication helps people. Specifically, Laura wanted to help healthcare and loved hearing about the new treatments for others with rheumatoid arthritis. Before her first year at Syracuse, Laura spent a year in Argentina. She dove into the different culture and started blogging for her hometown back in Pennsylvania. She also started writing stories about her experience for a paper in Argentina, which means she had to write them in Spanish. She discussed many of the differences, good and bad, between the two cultures and the cultural differences. Reflecting on her travel she told the class to always share their story, you never know who will be interested or who is listening.
Coming to Newhouse, Laura was a very busy freshman. She joined many different groups and fulfilled her many different interests, while networking with people along the way. Laura is a go-getter, going into the summer after her freshman year she already had an internship, which honestly stressed me out. She interned with many different businesses, her first being a baseball group in Cape Cod and others being large corporations like GE Healthcare. Laura is now a business technology analyst at Deloitte. While she did major in public relations, and was really good at it, Laura thought that Deloitte was the best fit for her.
Laura’s story has inspired me to become more of a go-getter like herself. She doesn’t seem to back down or take no for an answer. She told the class that the more things you try the more you grow and that the happiest people take the most risks. She has encouraged me to take more control of my future and start now rather than later. I will now network more and tell my story. People don’t remember the same old introduction with your name and major, you’ve got to give them something to remember. Although it is overwhelming to think of all the hard work she put in to be where she is now, I know in the end it will pay off if I try to do the same. She explained that most everything can relate back to storytelling, so hopefully I just have to be a good storyteller to achieve my dreams, right?