Clarissa Espinoza has always wanted to define her own reality. While many of her peers have chosen to make impacts in traditional jobs, Espinoza wanted to chart her own course. As a professional in the media industry, she simultaneously makes an impact while indulging her love for creativity.
“For the longest time, people wanted me to do the traditional jobs, but I looked for other outlets like psychology,” said Espinoza. “I went to college with the mindset that I wanted to do psychology, but I ended up in media studies. One of the things I love doing and being is creative, and working in the media industry is literally all about being creative.”
Espinoza majored in communication studies at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame. While on a choir trip as a student at Portage High School, Espinoza fell in love with the university. It was not long after that trip that the South Haven resident made plans to attend the school.
“One of the reasons that I went to Saint Mary's was because I went on a school choir trip,” said Espinoza. “They let us explore the school, and I fell in love with Saint Mary's. After junior year, I started seriously thinking about attending.”
As a first generation college student, Espinoza faced a lot of difficulties navigating through higher education. While her mother and family played a huge role as Espinoza’s number one supporters, her professor Colleen Fitzpatrick helped to fuel her passion for public relations (PR).
“I had her for a research class where she would always talk about how she teaches PR and marketing,” said Espinoza. “That's when I decided that I was going to take PR classes. The more I learned about it, the more I fell completely in love with the subject.”
Espinoza graduated from Saint Mary’s in May of this year. While looking for a job after, she discovered GreatNews.Life, whose mission of spreading positive news resonated with Espinoza, and she is now the publishing & social media editor for the media company.
“Positive news is constantly overshadowed, and I think the company emphasizing positive news is super important,” said Espinoza. “Doing that in the community I live in is especially empowering.”
One of the perks of working at GreatNews.Life, Espinoza gets to indulge in using PR knowledge on social media to positively impact the public’s views. She also gets to use her skills to impact those she cares about.
“I am helping my uncle, who is a veteran, because he has his own company,” said Espinoza. “He reached out to me to see if I could help him with essentially what I do for GreatNews.Life which is social media management and marketing.”
While Espinoza loves GreatNews.Life, she has aspirations to one day work at a PR firm in Chicago. Until then, you can find her discovering new festivals and community events in her home community.
“My favorite thing about South Haven is that there's more than meets the eye,” said Espinoza. “There's a bunch of little events throughout the year that I love. It's just really nice to see the South Haven community having the opportunity to gather together.”