By CHARLYNE BERENS
J Alumni News editor
Sloane Signal has been surprised more than a few times since August.
The Louisianan with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and a master’s in business administration has been surprised how much she likes teaching advertising at the NU journalism college. And the woman who grew up and went to college in New Orleans has been surprised how much she likes Lincoln.
“People have been telling me for years I should teach,” Signal said, but she dismissed the idea. Now that she’s doing it, though, teaching promotional writing and advertising copy and strategy, she has been “pleasantly surprised how much I like it.”
And Signal likes the negatives about Lincoln: less traffic, less crime, less noise, fewer crowds. While Lincoln may not offer a young single woman the same kind of social life Signal had in New Orleans or Chicago, where she worked for a year, social life isn’t as important as some other things she’s found at NU, she said.
Signal earned a B.A. in Spanish in 1993 from Tulane University in New Orleans and a master’s in business administration with an emphasis in marketing and management from Tulane in 2000.
While working on the MBA, Signal worked for Tulane’s institutional advancement office, primarily doing fund-raising for the school.
After she finished the degree, Signal spent a year in Chicago where she worked in the Chicago Cubs’ marketing department doing special events. She was especially involved in the seventh-inning stretch activities during which the Cubs invited celebrities to conduct the crowd in a chorus of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” She scheduled the celebrities, helped them prepare for their appearances as guest conductors and made sure their visits to Wrigley Field went according to plan.
Signal got to work with the likes of Mel Gibson, Donald Trump, Mike Ditka, Michael Bolton, Dick Clark and Gary Sinise, but she had the most fun with the Budweiser “What’s Up?” guys. The commercial campaign had just received a big award, she said, and the actors got a great response from the baseball audience. “It was just pandemonium,” she remembers.
After her year with the Cubs, Signal came to Lincoln as events coordinator for Updowntowners, an arm of the Downtown Lincoln Association. She left that job last summer and joined the advertising faculty in August.
Teaching three sections of a writing class to a total of 50 students has kept her more than busy, Signal said. “I grade papers constantly. If you get behind, it’s like quicksand.
“That’s the challenge (of the job). You need to be proactive about your teaching and also keep up with the administrative aspect of it.”
Signal said she wasn’t sure how she would take to the heightened responsibility she sees in her teaching position. But she likes it. “You’re helping shape their future,” she said of her students. “That’s a big responsibility.”
She has seen academia from all sides, Signal said: undergraduate student, grad student, staff at Tulane and faculty at NU. Each brings a different perspective. “I like the faculty perspective best,” she said.
Nancy Mitchell, chair of the advertising department, said Signal brought a lot to the department.
“I think Sloane complements the department very well,” Mitchell said. “She brings with her a background in marketing with her MBA, and I think the students will benefit from the marketing
component as they create the strategies for their communications campaigns.”
Of course, Signal’s responsibilities as a faculty member at the J school extend beyond the classroom. As adviser to the Ad Club, Signal accompanied 45 students to Chicago the first weekend in November to visit ad agencies there. Signal said she was happy with the level of commitment she saw from the students, who took the lead in planning the successful trip.
And, like all other faculty, Signal advises students on their programs of study. That was scary at first, she said, because she didn’t want to give a student incorrect advice by accident. “I feel committed to these kids,” she said. But she said other faculty have helped her learn fast just how the college’s and university requirements work, and advising is going OK, too. Another surprise.
And Signal isn’t the only one surprised by her current circumstances. Friends are surprised she landed in Lincoln and is staying put, she said. But she said the university has given her life a stability that is important, and she is enjoying the opportunity to tackle something new.
“It’s interesting how things work out,” she said.