Meet Eileen Ybarra! Eileen is a two-time Cardinal graduate. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in 2019 and a Master of Arts in EMDD in 2021. This creative Cardinal is a published author and full-time marketing and content strategist. Chirp Chirp, Eileen!

 

What led you to your graduate program at BSU?

I had never thought about getting my master’s, I guess, like in general. When I was in my undergrad at Ball State, there was a professor who I got to know well because I had her almost every semester, and she told me the Emerging Media, Design, and Development graduate program could fit what I was interested in. It turns out it was a really great program. So then I kind of went, I remember there was like a lunch and learn type thing that I went to for the program, and I knew then I was interested. After I was accepted, I went the graduate assistant route, so I got an assistantship, which helped financially. It was really because that professor put it on my radar. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have even thought about it until later in life, because I kind of went a more unconventional route where I went straight for my undergrad, into grad school, did the assistantship, and then went into the more non-academic world. So Sure. Yeah. So you did EMDD. What year did you graduate? I graduated with my bachelor’s from the English Department in 2019, and then I graduated with my master’s from MDD in 2021.

What was your proudest memory as a BSU grad student?

My program provided a lot of real-life learning opportunities. During the first year, we spent most of the time in the classroom, but then the whole second year was more real-world application and more immersive. I got to work on a project to create digital literacy training for school educators. And that was really, really cool. We put together different training modules and worked with, I want to say it was K through 5 or K through 6, teachers in the Muncie area. We did design thinking with them, and it was a great experience. It was just really cool to have that experience in general, but then also, have that experience going into my next adventure once I was done with the program too

How have you been able to use your graduate degree from BSU?

I work in marketing for a commercial roofing company. We do commercial buildings across the whole country, and we only do restoration. So there’s a huge sustainability value because we’re not actually going in and tearing off the roofs. We are going in and restoring the existing surface so that it is good for another 15, 20 years. So I function as kind of a jack of all trades just because I’m the only market person, but part of what I do is the sustainability storytelling and customer reporting, which obviously like the stuff that I learned in EMDD as far as usability, design thinking, what resonates well with someone. comes into play really well there. Then I also do all types of sales support type content, customer testimonials, which is something that we learn in the program. EMDD teaches a lot about empathy interviews and talking to someone, asking them questions that are non-biased to hear about their experience. get to know them better, and that’s kind of a process that I’ve taken into some of those things that I do as well. There are a lot of connections to what I want to do in marketing, which you wouldn’t think it because it’s not a marketing degree, but the storytelling and the process of presenting something so it resonates and stick with someone links back to the program. 

What advice or wisdom do you have to share with current BSU grad students?

I have two degrees from Ball State, but one of my favorite things was the immersive learning. So if there’s any opportunity to engage with that, just do it because it may seem like it’s extra work, but what you get out of it is so much more. It’s just so meaningful what you get out of it. So definitely engage with any immersive opportunity you can. Also, put yourself out there to try stuff, whether it’s an internship or shadowing someone, because I think the sooner you can figure out whether you like something or not, that’s better than getting stuck in a job that you end up not loving after six months. So just test and try things. I’d say to other graduate students in the EMDD program to really lean into the program’s four pillars – design thinking, cross-platform storytelling, human/computer interaction, and user experience design. Really lean into your niche. The program prepares you really well to have enough knowledge to be dangerous in all of those areas. But like for me, I would say I am more of a design-light person. I would not call myself a designer, but I do design-light. So when I was in the program, I definitely leaned more into the design thinking and the storytelling. But someone else who has different strengths might lean more into the human/computer interaction or user experience types stuff. Allow yourself to know enough to be dangerous about all of the things, but then also lean into where your strengths are.