Logan McHone
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Logan McHone graduated in 2019 with a B.A. in Communication and an emphasis in Public Relations and a minor in Political Science. He is currently a fourth semester graduate student, pursuing his M.S. in Mass Communication and serving as a Graduate Instructional Assistant with the Department of Communication.
What is the Graduate Instructional Assistant program?
Get paid to earn your Master’s Degree! Earn your M.S. in Professional Communication while serving as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. The salary is $17,000 per academic year (the cost of tuition plus $9,000). You can pursue graduate certificates in health advocacy, organizational communication, social and new media, or strategic communication while gaining valuable experience in management, adult education, training and development, teamwork and leadership. Learn more at: www.uww.edu/online/masters/communications
How did you hear about the GIA program?
“I heard about the GIA program from a few of my professors during my undergraduate time here at UW-Whitewater. I was told to reach out to Tammy French, and I met with her and the program sounded like a great opportunity. I was on the public speaking team here at Whitewater and teaching was something that I always wanted to try!”
Why did you pick UW-Whitewater?
“I picked UW-Whitewater for my graduate program because of the GIA program. I was looking into a few places for Graduate School but I chose Whitewater due to the GIA program and the opportunity.”
What does a typical day look like for a GIA?
“As a GIA, the typical day is teaching three sections of COMM110 at 8-10AM, we typically have a meeting once a week to talk about lecture plans, and usually I have two hours of office hours after teaching, which are actually nice because it is a great time to catch up on homework / grading. The days are typically from 7:30 am – 1:00 pm, so they're very reasonable. There's a lot of interaction with students on a daily basis, which is great!”
What is your favorite part about life at UW-Whitewater?
“My favorite part of UW-Whitewater is it’s very easy to get involved, and it’s a smaller campus. Starting from my freshman year, I got involved right away and I felt right at home.”
What made you want to pursue a degree in Communication?
“Previously I was an Accounting major, and I realized a few semesters in that I was more of a people person than a numbers person. I wanted a job where I worked with people, not numbers, so I made the jump to Communication.”
Were you involved in any student orgs? If so, which ones and why?
“Yes! I was involved with the Forensics Team. Forensics is competitive public speaking, and Whitewater’s program is very competitive nationally. We travelled across the country and competed against other college students from everywhere, and that was an awesome experience. It was one of the highlights of my time at UW-Whitewater for sure.”
What do you hope to do when you graduate?
“Upon graduation, I hope to find a job teaching in college, most likely at a community college or a technical school in the Southern Wisconsin / Northern Illinois area.”
If you could give any piece of advice to your former self, what would it be?
“The advice would be to take my education and school more seriously earlier than I did. While I never got ‘bad grades’ per say, being a good student is a process, and it’s never too late to learn those skills and get better. Things like organization, and just mentally making school a priority are very important for being a good student and they’re totally in our control. I never thought I would go to graduate school, and if you’re in the same boat, you never know what will happen! Here I am about to get my Masters and considering going on to get my doctorate someday (fingers crossed).”
Advice to your future self?
“To always keep work-life balance in mind. I consider myself a hard worker, but I also don’t ever want to ‘Live to work’. My parents did a great job being around as much as possible being working professionals, and I want to do the same in the future.”
Advice to any potential UW-Whitewater Communication student?
“Engage with your professors! The faculty of the Communication department are both very knowledgeable in their fields, but they’re also great people as well, and they want students to succeed.”
Learn more about the online M.S. in Communication