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When Sarah Holt Doll was graduating from high school in 2008, she thought her future was either in musical theater or journalism. But after deciding to study journalism at Ohio University and working at WOUB Public Media, Doll’s career has gone down a completely different path – information technology (IT).
“My career took a complete left turn,” said Doll. “But I use everything I learned at WOUB and Ohio University in my job as a business systems analyst at Progressive Insurance.”
Doll grew up in the Cleveland area and came to Ohio University because of the journalism school’s great reputation.
“When I came to visit the campus, they took us on a tour of WOUB. It was a huge selling point,” said Doll. “I remember walking through it and seeing all the studios and opportunities presented for students. I couldn’t believe it was there.”
Doll attended the very first informational session at WOUB during fall quarter of her freshman year. She started working on radio sports and vividly remembers having to come in to anchor WOUB AM sportscasts at 5 a.m.
“I have memories of walking up Jeff Hill when it was dark, so early in the morning,” said Doll with a laugh.
Eventually she moved out of sports and started working in news. She reported and anchored for WOUB TV’s NewsWatch and even did weather.
“At some point during my junior year, I realized that broadcast journalism just wasn’t for me. I loved storytelling, but the other parts of journalism just weren’t for me. So, I decided to double major in broadcast journalism and public relations with specializations in marketing and international politics,” said Doll. “But I kept working at WOUB and learning all I could.”
Doll’s first job when she graduated from Ohio University was at a pharmaceutical advertising agency, GSW, where she managed internal communications strategies as well as events and campaigns. Then in 2014, she accepted a job as the director of marketing and public relations at MCPc, a technology company that manages security for its clients.
“That’s when the turn in my career started to happen,” said Doll. “I had to learn about technology and started to get really interested in it.”
In 2017, Doll began working in public relations at Progressive Insurance in Cleveland. She specialized in the technology segment of the business there as well and eventually started taking computer science classes. In 2018, Doll was moved into the business systems analyst position that she has now.
“WOUB gave me the ability to think on my feet. We were taught to really dive into a story and not just look at things on the surface level. I learned how to find the right information and make sure it was correct before I put it out there,” said Doll. “For me in college, WOUB was my daily life. I feel like I lived in that building. My friends were all there. It was a place to learn and grow. I was able to try new things. WOUB was my home base, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
To learn more about WOUB, visit woub.org.