When it comes to certain classes, students may wonder: “how will this help me for the future?” But for Warren Hills alumna Megan Wintersteen (Class of ‘04), the skills learned in Journalism and while working on the school newspaper proved to be ones she would carry into her long and fruitful Communications career.

During high school, Wintersteen was a member of the Journalism class and newspaper staff under the advisership of Mrs. Penny Giamoni for three years. During that time, Wintersteen served as a Staff Writer and Layout & Design Editor, culminating in an Editor in Chief position during her senior year. 

Wintersteen said while she most enjoyed the layout process of producing The Streak, her most memorable articles were editorials.

 “I wrote a rather controversial Op-Ed for the paper my senior year that some people loved and others hated,” she said.  “So there was some backlash, but also some good handshakes. It made me feel like a real reporter.”

According to her LinkedIn profile, Wintersteen majored in Communications, Journalism and Public Relations at Salisbury University in Maryland and went on to earn her master’s degree in Advertising at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Since college, Wintersteen has held a variety of positions in the Communications and Marketing fields, ranging from copy editor to digital strategist, from strategy director to vice president of Marketing – a position she currently holds at Adentro, a tech-startup company based in Scottsdale, AZ that helps “brick-and-mortar businesses connect digital advertising to in-store results,” according to their website.

Wintersteen said the communication skills learned in high school have served as prerequisites in the variety of positions she has held. 

“Understanding how to identify an angle, craft a narrative, create influence – those are all mainstays of advertising and marketing,” she said. 

Wintersteen emphasized, however, that her successes did not come without its lessons. Recalling an embarrassing moment at a conference when she accidentally presented an unfinished version of her PowerPoint to a group of senior marketers, Wintersteen said she re-learned an important lesson about always taking the time to double check final details.

”It was horrible,” she said. “I tried to ad lib my way through it, but a lot of my talking cues were supposed to be on the slides. It was just messy. I will never make the mistake of not confirming things are exactly as they should be again.” 

Wintersteen said in her current position at Adentro, she enjoys working with analytics and the psychology behind customers and their behavior.

 “It’s like art and science all rolled into one,” she said, “and it’s largely driven by connections to thoughts and ideas that I’m making outside the workplace.”

For students who plan on pursuing a similar career, Wintersteen had some sage advice.

“Remember that you don’t have to wait to score some big job at an agency or with a company to start building your portfolio,” she said. “Put yourself in positions where you can try a bunch of things. It’s the only way you’re going to find out where you want to be.”