Finding a ‘Side Hustle’

Annie Pacella knows how to hustle. She’s a thirdyear student who’s graduating this spring with a media production and studies and marketing degree and hope to pursue media business.She chose BGSU for several reasons, including program details, low tuition and the Kuhlin Center.

“BG just had the specific program of media business so I kind of based my major off of what the school had to offer just because of the title and the program,” Pacella said. “I definitely wanted to be involved with more behind-thescenes. … I liked (the program) because it was more new media than old media and the facility’s brand new.”

She chose her minor in marketing because “it’s more business-based rather than advertising, which is more mediabased,” she added. Pacella decided to hustle and graduate early. She had 20 credits before coming to BGSU and decided to take 18 credits per year to save on tuition.

“(Graduating early) would also make it seem like in my mind I had to move faster so freshman year I started looking for internships. I got my first internship with Kona Ice in Pittsburgh,” Pacella said.

She was their social media manager, and she drove a snow cone truck. “My friends kinda they thought it was a joke but I was really like managing the employees and the social media so I thought that was cool,” she said. Next, Pacella got an internship with a California-based food run app until she found out it is not on campus.

“It’s a funny story because I told them, I was like, ‘I paid for this internship credit, I got to do something.’ So they put me on the hiring team,” Pacella said. She got to hire thirty-somethings over the phone. “I am kind of all over the place with internships but I kind of like that because it gives, it shows me what I like, what I don’t like, what’s busy,” Pacella said.

“I love all my internships. I wouldn’t trade any of them.” Finding internships was 50% Pacella’s own initiative and 50% help from BGSU. “I paid attention to the emails that were being sent out, like the athletic (internship) was an email that a professor sent out and I was interviewing the next day,” Pacella continued. “The Career Center really helped.”

Her current “side hustle” is blogging and doing social media for a small business that builds websites for people. She connected with the company through her sister-in-law who works for the business.

She has also interned with a non-profit, Bike Pittsburgh, and she currently interns with the athletic department. Tutoring is another one of Pacella’s side hustles. She tutors about an hour a week in Marketing, Media and Sociology.

To be a tutor, a student simply needs to get an A in the class. Pacella enjoys the fact that marketing is a subject where there’s no right or wrong answer. “I become friends with all the people I tutor. And also it helps me because I work on communication skills because everyone learns differently and like I said I wanna be a manger one day so I need to learn how to communicate with people,” she said. “I like seeing how certain people learn and what works for them.”

Tutors are paid hourly and become certified. “It’s a good gig, because you’re learning while you’re tutoring,” Pacella said. In addition to tutoring, Pacella gained leadership experience through the Media Student Association. She joined as a freshman and saw an email asking for a treasurer and got the position. She also joined the board planning Media Career Day freshman year, and stayed on every year.

Last year she was Vice President of MSA, and this year she is President. MSA Day, or Media Production Studies Career Day, involves a Q&A panel of BGSU alum, a free lunch with a keynote speaker, media awards and an employee mixer. Every year, the School of Media and Communication presents awards to students. But this is the first year the awards are part of MSA Day.

“That’s our biggest event — that’s what we do all year,” Pacella said. This year she led the planning on their own because their faculty advisor took a sabbatical. Students are able to network with past alumni. This year there were five successful alumni on the panel.