Author: Brae Troutman, Student Technology Consultant

Going to a liberal arts school like Wake Forest, I’ve often been worried to apply myself to more creative pursuits because they don’t feel as applicable to the futures that many Wake students find themselves looking into: medicine, technology, consulting, business, the list goes on and on.

However, working as a Tech Consultant over the past year and now serving as a student ambassador for Adobe, I’ve found that having the ability to use the creative tools and learning opportunities provided at Wake has opened new doors for me and my work. There are three ways in which I’ve found Creative Cloud and other tools to be applicable in my university and professional career so far:

1. School work

Tools like Photoshop, Audacity, and Premiere Rush are all apps that I’ve used frequently with my work for classes, especially when it comes to presentations and projects. In the increasingly digital environment of the pandemic, being able to work creatively around our changing academic spaces is crucial and working in a creative job on campus and participating in workshops and such has really helped me through this time period.

2. Self-Marketing

Just knowing how to use Creative Cloud and other tools already looks great on a resume! But beyond that, they provide a great way to increase your digital portfolio and market yourself to employers in unique and interesting ways. Although in my field I don’t need to market my ability to use Photoshop, InDesign, and other such tools, I can use them to format my resume, or provide assets for a personal website to use when submitting applications to employers.

3. Professional Work

This past summer I worked as an intern in data science, and I thought that my skills in the Creative Cloud weren’t really going to be applicable. I couldn’t have been more wrong though! Anywhere you work, being able to visualize and present your work in a pleasing, interesting, and digestible format is very important when working both with customers and within a company. This is especially true with data visualization, and was also helpful for me when communicating across teams where knowledge bases and certain skills might not overlap between the two parties.

All in all, there’s so much to gain from getting involved with creative pursuits, technology and training at Wake! Check out the WakerSpace and WFU IS to find out how you can use Wake’s digital creative resources to the fullest!