Leading with Confidence: How Ad Creative Student, Shirley Brown is Empowering Women in MSU’s ADPR Program
By: Evan Ward
It started as a routine mentoring event — a room full of students, notebooks open, ready to listen. But when one mentor shared how her dream job out of college turned into a lesson on pay inequality and the weight of being undervalued, silence filled the room. For Michigan State University advertising creative student, Shirley Brown, that moment captured the importance of everything she’s built through ADPR student organization, Women in Advertising and Communications (link).
WAC focuses on providing mentorship for young women in their respective professional fields within all communication arts. Women professionals in the greater-Detroit area from top companies such as Google, Snapchat and The Trade Desk are matched WAC members and act as their mentors. WAC also hosts personal branding, interview and development workshops, and speed mentoring to help their members get valuable hands-on experience to prepare them for the job search and beyond.
As a natural-born leader, Brown has had an impressive journey in her studies, and at the heart of her leadership are her values. After attending community college, Brown transferred to MSU with little guidance or plan.
“I Googled ways to be acknowledged by my professors at a big school to get more hands-on experience because transferring is kind of a big leap,” said Brown.
She says she was determined to chart her own course, and on her first day, walked up and shook the hand of the professor who would become both her mentor and source of encouragement, ADPR professor of practice, Julie Beaty.
“She told me about WAC, and I already knew that the prior team was about to graduate, so I asked about applying for the presidential leadership position,” Brown said.
Since becoming president, Brown has worked closely with Beaty and the mentor executive team to spearhead programs that prepare members, mostly young women, for real-world advertising careers. Currently in development, they are working together to create a program that brings club members into advertising agencies and public relations firms in key cities.
Brown’s journey is clearly noteworthy, but as a woman, she says she has faced unique disparities that many women in her industry face daily. Hearing the mentor’s testimony lit a fire in Brown, one that continues to drive her leadership today.
“The United States has a lot more privilege than other countries, so it may seem like we have gender equality in the workplace, but unfortunately, that’s not always the case,” Brown said.
Brown says she believes it is integral in a young woman’s career to be well-connected, especially with other women. For her, those connections are a source of strength and solidarity — a reminder that success is built not on talent alone, but on the support of others who have walked similar paths.
“Walk with confidence knowing you have the skills to learn what’s ahead, because it’s OK not to know everything at once; no one does,” said Brown. “We all start somewhere.”
To learn more about WAC or inquire about membership, visit the group’s Instagram here: @msu_wac.
