Story by Jacquelyn Lancaster, USC Upstate (English ’19)
Brittany Cooper, USC Upstate (English ’15), is combining her passions in one job, as a marketing automation specialist. After a few years of exploring her career possibilities the world over, she’s found her niche.
A love of literature drew Brittany Cooper to major in English, with a minor in Communication. She graduated from USC Upstate in 2015. Not knowing immediately what she wanted in her career, she decided to explore her options. Passionate about the Spanish language, she traveled to Spain under a scholarship from the Spanish government. There she worked in elementary schools teaching English and on the side teaching adult literacy classes for two years.
Brittany participated in two marketing internships during her college career, both of which piqued her interest in the field. Her internship with The Carolinian helped her to evolve her digital skills, as she developed Carolinian.org herself as a student. She was able to develop team-building and content management skills with the newspaper that have helped her in her current position, as well as the opportunity to travel and meet people.
She came home from Spain determined to “hit the ground running on [her] career.” A travel marketing agency gave her the perfect opportunity to incorporate her love of technology and digital work with her writing skills. She was once again traveling the world, adding countries like Mexico and Aruba to her list of familiar places.
After six months, she was ready to find a more permanent residence. She moved to Charlotte to work for a Wi-Fi solutions company, but kept searching. The Laire Group specializes in “digital marketing, strategic planning, and sales enablement.” Brittany said that this job really allowed her to combine her love of writing with marketing and web development. At the Laire Group, Brittany managed portfolios for seven companies, organizing a team of specialists to develop the ideal marketing strategies for their clients. Today she works as a digital marketer for Passport.
Brittany enjoys working with analytics, strategy, and “finding inventive ways to solve problems.” She said she began to develop these skills as an English major at USC Upstate.
She discovered the foundation for marketing content in learning about literature, theory, close reading, and evaluation, and “marketing is so much about content.” She said this developed her perspective, and she applies this knowledge for her clients in creating valuable and appealing content: “Having these skills makes for a really great marketing specialist, in my opinion.”
She specifically remembers Dr. Kusch’s literary theory and American literature classes, as well as Dr. Williams’ “Writing in Digital Environments” class. She said this has been one of the “most applicable and useful” classes for her current position and interests.
She said that her experiences at USC Upstate enabled her to get the most out of her college career. She would recommend the college—with its small classes and sense of connection to the faculty and other students—to anyone interested in the humanities, but Brittany reminds prospective students that “your success is up to you.”