Luke Coan ’25: Becoming your best self-advocate
Discover the enriching journey of TFAS alumnus Luke Coan ’25, a strategic communications major from Elon University, who discovered a whole new world during his transformative summer in Washington, D.C.
🏫 University: Elon University
📚 Major: Strategic Communications
📍 Hometown: Houston, TX
🧭 Program Track: Journalism & Communications
💼 Internship: The Well News
How has your TFAS Summer impacted you?
🏛️ Immered in D.C. Culture
It has been an amazing experience being completely immersed in the D.C. culture, getting hands-on experience at the National Press Club and meeting friends through both my internship and the George Mason class. Professionally, the best thing I’ve found is that people are willing to network; you just have to “get your foot in the door” and self-advocate. Personally, everyone is in the same boat, so I found making friends really natural and easy.
What was the most interesting thing you did at your internship?
🌎 Using My Skills in the Real World
Doing Canva work for Christina Paulos, my employer, was something interesting that I’ve done throughout these past few weeks. One was a presentation telling everyone about what we do at the Well News, and it had a list of all the current members of Congress listed across multiple slides.
Another highlight was the photography project that we had earlier in the internship. We had my coworker, Mica Magday, take photos of us holding up the Well News Logo at the Foggy Bottom metro to better market our brand. It’s cool when you integrate skills you’ve learned in college, such as creating Canva presentations and photography and applying them in a real-world setting.
What did you like most about living in Washington, D.C.?
🇺🇸 Exposure to the D.C. Political Landscape
The exposure to politics and all the different events/tours TFAS offers has definitely been a highlight of living in Washington, D.C. Every day when I go into work at the press club, I have multiple TVs on different platforms to update me on current events, so it’s nice to get the full picture. In terms of tours, the monument tour has been my favorite so far.
How did this experience change the way you show up in professional spaces?
🕴Dress for Success
Even if the dress code is business casual, I like to dress business professional just to set a standard for both my boss and the coworkers around me. I want to take this principle and apply it to my future job as well. I also learned that showing up 10 minutes early for work is something employers don’t take lightly.
What advice do you have for future TFAS students?
🗣️ Be your best self-advocate
I would advise future TFAS students not to be afraid to network and always be self-advocating.
You can’t build connections without reaching out to someone and making the first move. Also,
carrying an on-hand resume is super helpful since some people might be too busy to look at it
virtually or online
How have the TFAS networking events helped you expand your professional circle?
🤝 Network for your Next Steps
It has been really insightful to see what my coworkers think of the networking events
and see what they take away from them. Most recently, going to the TFAS Alumni Roundtable + Networking Dinner was very helpful because it was cool not only to hear what advice the alumni had to offer, but to talk with them one-on-one about where the next steps to network can be. Even if that only meant talking to one person because of how many people had the same idea, it is still great to get any type of networking experience.