Her Story
About AnaBella
I'm a Senior Academic Coordinator at Carnegie Mellon University, where I've been since 2023. I graduated from Penn State University in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in history, which wasn't a great year to get a job. I started my career as a copywriter at a marketing company for about seven months before I was offered an opportunity at Penn State University to manage a tutoring office at a branch campus. I decided to leave copywriting and go back to my alma mater to help the tutoring program there. While working as a writing tutor, I was part of developing a program called WATS that brought writing tutors together with engineering majors to help engineers improve on their writing skills. Through their eyes, I learned how important words were and how important the structure of a sentence and tone is for engineers. This experience helped me realize that I had a real deep passion not just for teaching, tutoring, guiding, and mentoring, but also with writing. From there, I was able to apply for the Honors College at Penn State, got in, and started working on my thesis, bringing together my professional writing skills with my passion for history. As a first-generation college student who had no idea what I was doing in college, I think back to that version of myself a lot, and it drives me to want to do better for the students here at CMU, but also for my colleagues.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with AnaBella
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think I would attribute my success to the younger version of me that was going through college as a first-generation college student and had no idea what I was doing. I think back to that version of myself a lot, and it drives me to want to do better for the students here at CMU, but also for my colleagues. That experience of navigating college without a roadmap has shaped how I approach my work and motivates me to create better support systems for others.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The biggest piece of advice that I've consistently given anyone that we've hired is that no job is too small. I think it's important that no matter where you stand in a university regarding your leadership status, it's important that you understand the inner workings of your department and your college. Being open and humbling yourself enough to be able to take on even the smaller tasks really helps you round yourself out and be able to become more approachable to your colleagues and build a better team dynamic.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think there is a huge question as to the value of a college degree, and everyone that I am working with is taking a really hard look at curriculum to see where we can improve so that students know when they come into this degree, they are going out with skills that an employer needs and desires and will motivate the employer to hire them. I think that is a huge challenge, but it's also an opportunity for us to experiment more with experiential learning, throw students into the industry in internships, and really strive to make sure that they get those opportunities before they leave our college with a degree so that they feel more ready and that they have that real-world experience that can help them when they are actually working professionals or going back into a new position.
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