Norma O Kelly
Language and Cultural Studies
"My degree in Languages and Cultural Studies has been the stepping-stone into the marketing world, without ever studying business."
Norma chose the BA degree in Language and Cultural Studies as it included everything she wanted - work experience, study abroad and an opportunity to study Technical writing or TEFL with languages. "In my first year I specialised in French and Linguistics. In the second year I completed a work placement in Atlas Travel Services in San Francisco. I worked as a consolidator and travel consultant for 8 months where I gained invaluable office experience and eventually ran my own department."
"After my Co-operative Education I went to study in Louvain-la-Neuve University in Belgium for 5 months. My focus during these months was to learn French and try out some new Arts subjects. Every summer during my time in University I was fortunate enough to travel and work abroad. One of my summers I worked for a Fine Art museum in Quimper and in my final year, I worked in Spain to learn some Spanish".
During her third year at UL Norma chose French Language, French literature, TEFL and Cultural studies. For her final year project she focused on tourism for her research area and opted to take a marketing approach to the issue. It was here she discovered that she was really interested in marketing but still wanted to use her French. She linked the two very successfuy by applying for the IBEC European Orientation programme on graduation. She was selected by Irish as the Irish Whiskey ambassador for Ricard SA in France.
As Norma says, "This marketing graduate programme with Irish Distillers has given me 14 months of marketing, sales and PR experience and I still get to use my French every day! I drive a company car and my main functions within the company include PR, promotions, presentations and competitor analysis on the field. I have worked on some interesting projects during the year including; Cinema festivals, Celtic rock festivals and given presentations in exclusive hotels and golf clubs all over France. Working and Living in Paris as a young graduate is very exciting".
"An arts degree is the start and it does not confine you to stay in any one area. You have numerous options once you finish and for me that option was the EOP programme. I hope to stay in the marketing and sales world and continue to use my French".