By Olivia Consuelo Ramos
Correspondent
Nicole Kirgan ‘13 returned to the College to become an adjunct professor this semester to teach on the same campus that inspired her to become a reporter.
Kirgan, who majored in journalism and professional writing at the College, wanted to teach a JPW course. She launched Non-Profit Communication, a new course that focuses on how to effectively convey the mission and values of an organization to gain supporters and mobilize resources.
Kirgan transferred to the College after graduating from Ocean County College in 2011. While she originally intended to become a Spanish teacher, an Introduction to Journalism course sparked her interest in the field.
“I have all of that collective insight and knowledge that I took along with me and here I am today able to impart that wisdom and knowledge onto students that can use that to discover their own interests and passion,” Kirgan said.
Kirgan’s interest in communications inspired her to get involved in journalism websites both on and off campus. She was an editor for the College’s Her Campus chapter, a national magazine written by student journalists from many different institutions. She was also an intern for SarahScoop, Lovelyish and Bauer Media Group.
During her last semester at the College, she was required to write articles for the Times of Trenton. She landed her first job out of college writing for that newspaper, at which she once wrote an article about the creation of Campus Town.
After being employed for several years as a communications manager at the New Jersey Department of Health, she was able to learn more about policy making directly from a government agency.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kirgan was then employed with The Office of the Secretary of Higher Education of New Jersey, where she was able to optimize her knowledge of government policy. She directed communications relating to the pandemic and helped modify public policies to better inform the public.
“I had a very valuable opportunity to sit at those meetings and understand how programs and laws were shaped and what considerations were considered when crafting public policy,” Kirgan said.
Kirgan currently serves as the senior director of communications at Taft Communications. This public relations firm works with businesses to train their workers to communicate through social media. Their other main focus is to help businesses understand their goals, demographics and how they want to communicate with other businesses and their communities.
“I could be on call with a client talking about health, and the next call could be about sustainability and the next call after that could be about anything under the sun, so you really get a different flavor for multiple different industries, different thought leaders that we get to work with to help shape their own communication style,” Kirgan said.
She credits her time at the College and her journalism career for teaching her skills and providing mentors that helped her succeed. She was able to apply these lessons to her current career in the field of public relations.
Kirgan said she is delighted to have the opportunity to help guide students to discovering what they want to take from their education at the College.
“I’m just so thrilled to be back on campus sharing the insights that I gathered along my journey, to really help students discover their passion,” Kirgan said.
