Introduce yourself and give a brief overview of why you chose Columbia College Chicago. 

My name is Mitzi Santamaria. I am a senior graduating in December, and I am an Advertising major with a minor in Social Media and Digital Strategy. 
As for why I decided on Columbia, it was kind of like a long path for me. I’m actually a transfer student so after graduation which was during COVID, I was at DePaul, and it didn’t work out. So, I took the next semester off, started applying for jobs and I ended up working at the Chicago Public Library and I still work there. After that, I went to community colleges just to go back into school. It was the easy way to get back into education. There I got my associate’s degree in English and started wondering ‘what am I gonna do with this? Where am I going to go moving forward?’. I started looking up jobs within an associate’s degree in English and I found copyrighting, which seemed very interesting to me and very fun. I started looking for schools that had advertising programs or copywriting degrees, and I knew I wanted to stay in the city because I’m from Chicago, so Columbia seemed like the best bet for me.
I wanted a smaller school and once I finished at community college, I started looking and visiting at schools, Columbia was one of the first schools that I visited and instantly I knew that I should be coming to Columbia, especially after I met Associate Professor Peg Murphy and I talked to her for a bit, so after that I applied and then here I am. 
 

What are you hoping to do in your career with copywriting and Ad experience?  

Definitely becoming a copywriter, whether joining an agency or working for a brand but immediately joining the advertising world. That’s like my main goal after school. In a sense of a general goal: challenging myself and seeking new projects just because of how much I’ve been exposed to many different things that I want to explore at school with Columbia.  Additionally, I hope to dig into my background. I am Hispanic or Latina, so definitely moving forward in my career I would like to bring in more of my culture to my work, as well as creating ads, bringing in myself into my work to help out and to represent my community.

Could you speak on your experience as a transfer student and what you’ve seen here at Columbia that you might not have had previously? 

 So, I did transfer in during the spring, which is very rare because typically students start during the fall. That was a bit odd because people were already there for a semester, so I felt like I had to pick up the pace in a sense. In comparison to my experience in community college, there was definitely a greater sense of community at Columbia and much more of being able to hang out with friends. More opportunities for community whereas previously, it was very much to go back to school, there was definitely a larger hunger to finish school, which I didn’t experience that much in Columbia. There are  different mindsets of students in each school. So that was one of the biggest things I noticed as a transfer student. I won’t say that I was treated as a student by the staff who were very nice because there is also that fear as a transfer student that like ‘am I actually going to fit in’. Luckily my counselors, advisors, and Peg were also very helpful with questions that I had.
My questions got answered. 

Are there any professors or faculty that have really helped you along your way?  

For my professors, I appreciate Peg Murphy, Tom Eslinger, Larry Minsky, and Kathleen Lorden. They’ve all been teachers that I’ve had almost every semester, at least for one class. They have been very helpful, not only just letting me learn more about advertising and feeling much more confident in the work, but also helping me outside of a classroom and in my career. Peg, for example, has really helped me adjust to Columbia. I would reach out to her and talk to her about my courses and what I needed to get done for the next semester, especially when we were struggling with how advisors meet, like being busy. She also helped me seek out internships and write letters for me, one of them was the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP) in which she wrote a letter of recommendation for me during winter break and I ultimately got into the new program. For Tom, I really enjoy the feedback he gives me. I feel like it’s important to find professors that give you feedback that actually helps you. Tom normally gives his feedback to help you, but he helps mold you and find yourself in your creative work. He is a true mentor. Kathleen Lorden, I had her for almost two semesters and she was definitely like a pillar of support in getting used to advertising. She did a lot of the foundational classes with me. She was very welcoming, nice, supportive, and gave advice towards applying for programs. For Larry, he was very important towards my career as a copywriter. I took my copywriting class with him. He was one of the teachers that I felt that I was actually getting feedback that would help me as a copywriter. So they all definitely played a role in shaping myself for the future.  

Are there any role models you have within the set industry that you’re trying to get into and why? 

One of the creatives over at Leo Burnett named Britt Nolan, he worked on the Allstate Mayhem advertising. He’s really cool, I like his story and his tone, everything that he’s done in terms of work, I really look up to. I feel like Tom as well, he’s explored other avenues and not only does he have his work and school life but his art as well. Some other notable works in the industry include the Amazon Prime “Lion Dog” ad, along with the Adidas Mexican bread inspired shoe.