Then & Now: Rebecca Benison

Rebecca Benison: 

Strategically Branding Social Media 

Rebecca Benison specializes in social media, publicity, public relations, writing, and editing. That said, she is quite a qualified and ambitious alum! During her time spent at Adelphi, Ms. Benison was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Honor Society, and Lamda Pi Eta, the National Communications Honor Society. Additionally, she was the Event Coordinator of the Environmental Action Coalition, and was involved in Public Relations for the Debate Team on campus. Topping this all off, Ms. Benison graduated a semester early, Magna cum Laude, with a BA in Communications, concentrating in Journalism. Needless to say, she was a high flyer here at AU.

Impressively, Rebecca has been recognized for her talents and accomplishments by previous coworkers, both on and off campus. She has also received several awards, such as the Communitas et Civitas Award from the Adelphi Department of Communications, the Dean's Award Scholarship, and the Talent Scholarship in Communications. Ms. Benison was also a Levermore Global Scholar, and recognized by Nassau County Legislator John J. Ciotti for her participation in the Inaugural United States Summit and Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy. In addition to her professional accolades, Ms. Benison is a passionate, charitable young woman who seeks to give back to the community and values culturalism. This is indicated by her involvement in Pets4Love Animal Shelter and linguistic knowledge of Spanish and French. 

When it came time for Rebecca to apply for the Community Fellows Program (CFP), she was uniquely qualified given her previous experiential learning experiences, and strong work ethic. Thus, in 2010, she was placed at the Epilepsy Foundation of Long Island as a Community Relations Intern. There, Ms. Benison publicized recent accomplishments through press release writing and distribution, wrote and assembled the fall 2010 newsletter, and wrote grant proposals and letters of inquiry, and researched new sources of funding. Ms. Benison said, 

"My internship centered on writing and distributing press releases. At that company, I served many roles, including social media. This well-rounded experience helped me get hired by ThomasNet as a Project Manager of Digital Media. From there, I was later promoted to Social Media Brand Strategist. So each experience built off the one before it."

Evidently, Rebecca's CFP experience impacted her in a positive way, affecting her career trajectory. She stresses to students that:

"Every single opportunity you have in college is one worth pursuing. This program [CFP] looks great on your resume, builds professional skills, and leads to connections which can help you land a job later on. Don’t take it for granted. As long as you are in college, you should be doing everything possible to make sure you are employable after graduation. This program will help to achieve that."

Ms. Benison is an intelligent, engaged, and resourceful young lady, exemplary of the benefits CFP offers. To those embarking on their CFP journey, best of luck - enjoy the ride! To the remaining Panthers, enjoy your summer, be proactive in your employment/internship search, and keep an eye out for us next year.