Amanda Sanders ’22 becomes fluent in storytelling

In her final year at Conn, Amanda Sanders ’22 became the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The College Voice. But her journey to this leadership position started when she joined the Media, Rhetoric and Communication Pathway as a second-year student.

“I selected the Media Pathway to learn more about effective communication and presentation within various media outlets,” said Sanders, an English major and government minor from Great Neck, New York.

Her study of communication rhetoric was enhanced through internships at The Norman Rockwell Museum, where she worked as a marketing intern, and with the College’s Office of Communications, where she published her first magazine story, “Pixels Instead of Paint Strokes,” about museums going digital during the pandemic, in CC Magazine. She also published articles in New London’s The Day newspaper, thanks to her newfound ability to pitch story ideas.

“My internships, as well as working at The College Voice, informed me about the diversity of life on campus, as well as the utility of reliable news sources to filter out the rhetorical noise.”

Sanders wove her academic and cocurricular knowledge into her animating question, “How do the technologies available to us circumscribe or deepen our thinking and how do tech companies control our understanding of different events,” which she will present on at the All-College Symposium in November.

“My college experience presented communications rhetoric to me in different forms, which enabled me to learn more about how organizations and institutions utilize media to attract consumers or tell a story. I also saw firsthand what a career path in journalism would look like.”