By Misha Kouzeh
Silicon Valley is a great place to be for jumpstarting careers in Digital Marketing. That’s why opportunities to learn from the best in the industry don’t go unnoticed.
Aligned with UCLA Extension’s mission of providing practical learning opportunities, former Marketing Certificate student and alumna (‘15) Misha Kouzeh invited Digital Marketing experts from Facebook, Google and LinkedIn to share their knowledge and career journeys with students from diverse industries and 15+ countries.
Kouzeh states: “I was an international UCLA Extension student myself and transitioned into a fulfilling career throughout the program. As a student, I found a lot of value in the certificate program and embraced the diversity in the classroom. My instructors were supportive and brought in guest speakers who helped me kickstart my career in Los Angeles. This valuable experience triggered my interest in giving back and becoming an instructor in the program. After I started teaching Digital Marketing and developed a new class for the Sustainability program called Strategic Social Impact, I knew that this was my calling.”
Every quarter, Kouzeh reaches out to connections in- and outside of her network to invite guest speakers who’d like to share their expertise and personal career journeys in the digital marketing space. This quarter guest speakers from Facebook, Google and LinkedIn confirmed their participation and the rest is history!
Harsha Bilandani visited the class from LinkedIn as a returning UCLA Extension Alumna to share exclusive insider tips. Bilandani states: “Three years ago right here I sat in classes and listened to guest lecturers share their stories, and today I’m back in class to share my story and discuss Personal Branding on LinkedIn.”
A few weeks later the class welcomed Liz Tverskoy, Business Development Manager from the Google Inc. Office in Los Angeles. She shared her personal journey at Google for the past 5 years and stated: “I always love engaging and chatting everything digital + Google!” The students loved picking her brain about Google’s digital disruption and the Google Ad certifications that they can pursue to increase their job prospects.
Towards the end of the quarter, the class welcomed Justin Johnson who manages creator partnerships in the US at Facebook (Justin: first row, middle in grey shirt below). He shared the raw stories about his move from Texas to LA, experience in the music industry and how these give-back moments in a global, diverse classroom remind him to keep going and push this culture forward at Facebook. Throughout the quarter, Kouzeh worked with her dedicated Teaching Assistant Mila Permitina, a fellow UCLAx Alumna. Kouzeh concludes: “It’s so rewarding to hear my students’ success stories, from finding their dream job at Google in London to starting their own marketing business. I want to instill this sense of knowledge and empowerment in my students that anything is possible if they work hard, grow relentlessly and find power in teamwork, collaboration and networking.”
Image Source: Courtesy of Misha Kouzeh
About Misha Kouzeh, M.S.
Misha Kouzeh has been an instructor at UCLA Extension for the past 2 years creating success stories for her students, supporting their career journeys at Google, Sony, NBCUniversal and other tech and media companies. The global setting of the classroom is what really sparked her interest in the program. Kouzeh currently teaches three classes for UCLA Extension.