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This series features young alumni from the Russert Department of Communication. Learn more about opportunities in Russert at go.jcu.edu/russert

Michaela Ramicone ’17 currently manages six digital properties for the University of Pittsburgh as the Assistant Director of Digital Media for the Athletic Department.

The seeds of that career were planted during her time at John Carroll. Ramicone studied communication, with a concentration in integrated marketing communication. Her coursework provided her with a wide breadth of knowledge to take with her into the workforce through the creation of campaigns, practicing in-depth problem solving and learning to communicate effectively. 

Outside of the classroom, she participated in extracurricular activities and took on leadership roles within the organizations. During her sophomore year, Ramicone was the membership vice president for Gamma Phi, and during her junior year, she was the president of dance ensemble and panhellenic affairs vice president for Gamma Phi.

These experiences have improved my communication skills, organization, problem solving skills, and creativity, and I've applied these skills to my current position at Pitt.

During her time at JCU, Ramicone interned at VividFront, where she gained experience in social media marketing and creating content for a variety of clients. 

“Though very different from working in athletics, I learned a lot about client and consumer needs, and how both can be unified through a strong brand,” she said. “VividFront also acclimated me to the working world.”

With Pitt, Ramicone manages pittsburghpanthers.com, the online team store website, Pittband.com, Pittscriptforlife.com, the Pitt Athletics online auction, and the Pitt Gameday mobile app. She is responsible for updating content and coding and designing pages. Aside from that, she does marketing for shoppittpanthers.com, including social media, email, and in-game marketing.

In her role, Ramicone enjoys being the point-person for most of the digital media assets, which allows her to take the lead on decisions when it comes to completing new projects and implementing updates to digital platforms. She enjoys the creative freedom of pushing out marketing content for the team store, where she works closely with the licensing and merchandising director at Pitt and Dyehard Fan Supply, the store's retail provider.

Job hunting can be very daunting and time consuming, but accepting rejection and waiting for the right opportunity is my best advice to current students. I never planned on working in athletics. It wasn't my focus in my major, it wasn't a field I was making a point to find a job in. Athletics is a really interesting place to work in so I really enjoy the excitement around our programs and fast-paced work environment.