Adam Nisbet

Reflection on Learning Goals

The past semester has taught me that professional experience is constantly

compounding, and it is through combinations of experience that we create a more

comprehensive skill set over time. Coming into graduate school after working for

three years professionally has given me a great deal of experience to refer to. I have

been a policy analyst, legislative clerk, and a public relations coordinator. After my

first semester I see myself combining these experiences as a communicator more

than anything else. The classes I have taken have clearly bridged my interests in

political science, communications, and technology.

In my research I am studying political participatory gatherings and the modes

in which they communicate and coordinate through networked media channels. I feel

that I could further enhance my interdisciplinary research by learning more about

media and elections, polling, focus groups, public opinion, and also branching into

comparative government. Having worked for Google for a short period of time I

understand the broad reach of the internet and the possibilities it may hold for

developing democratic deliberation in all corners of world. I would like to further

enrich my studies by taking methodology classes that offer quantitative statistics, and

ways to approach research that I am less familiar with.

I believe that I have accomplished the learning goals I set out for myself at the

beginning of the semester. My career goals included learning about different career

paths within the field of communications. A premiere accomplishment of my career

goals would be the acceptance of an internship with Edelman public relations, where

I will be working in the digital public affairs department. I am also learning more

about communications through a work study placement as a publicist for a professor

on campus that is publishing a book on soldier psychology and warfare. From here I
would like to start planning my summer internship whether it is in California, with

Google or in South America doing a study abroad.

Researching new media and its implications for elections was one of the

highlights of my semester and I believe it is evidence of accomplishing my academic

learning goals. I have learned a great deal about democratization in America through

Dr. Owens’s Media and Elections course.

I have developed some interesting topics and a paper that I will be presenting at the

Chesapeake American Studies Conference. I would also like to present my research

at next years APSA conference. I have also further established this goal by

participating in a case study on the use of new media and the recent Iran election.

When I first arrived in DC as a staffer for a Senator I felt that I was broadening

my understanding of the country that I lived in because I had entered into a national

discourse where people from each state were represented. Now, since I have been

at Georgetown I realize that I have entered a discourse where each country in the

world is represented. The values that Georgetown has instilled within me give me

such a respect for diversity and different ideas and opinions which has urged me to

expand my understanding of the world and of global issues. I would also like to

challenge myself by enrolling in a Spanish course to keep studying my second

language. I have a desire to increase my knowledge and interaction with the

international community and advance my studies in these areas. I would like to do a

study abroad with the U.N. school of peace in Costa Rica.

I am looking forward to the New Year in 2010 because this will be the year I

spend the most time in Communications, Culture & Technology, and I feel it will be a

standout year for my goals in the areas of my career and academics, my scope of

interest, and my skill set.