Alumni Spotlight:

What I do now: Senior technical program manager for the Data Platform Team at Disney Streaming. Responsible for the data behind the ads seen on the web or apps on Disney streaming sites (including Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+). The data shows how many people click on the ads, their efficiency, how much money was spent, and how many people were converted from them; from there, that data is transformed into data science models that enable their marketing partners to do their job better and plan their budget appropriately.

Hartwick Experience that has Impacted My Professional Life: Being involved in academic departments, where I received tremendous amounts of support and knowledge of professional skills, including efficient communication and negotiation. Without the combined support of the German and political science departments, I don’t think I would be where I am today. I was very active in both departments and one of the most memorable experiences was as a mentor for the international relations first-year seminar—my first experience of being a true leader of a group. Given the opportunity to teach a course and with my own creation of a curriculum and grading system, I learned how to command a room and develop my organization and time management skills.

My Transition from College Student to Professional Career: I had a smooth personal transition from Hartwick College into the workforce. Being a double major and double minor created a very busy schedule for my undergraduate years. The intense workload as well as hands-on experience teaching first year seminar classes in the German Department taught me valuable lessons of time management and organizational skills that were translated into a career later on.

My Favorite Aspect of My Career: Seeing the direct impact my work has on everyday platforms like YouTube, Google, etc., that feature our team’s ads. My position allows me to be either very technical or program management oriented depending on what I want to do in my world and personally I go about in a more technical sense where I am able to get in depth in code and other things I want to do. I partake in hands-on work and see the substantial impact that results from my team’s daily work.

Advice for Current Students: Take advantage of Hartwick’s small class sizes and utilize all of the available resources! Meet with your professors early and often to establish close relationships with them, as they are great at working with you to pursue your interests. Having attended Cornell University in pursuit of my master’s degree, I saw the vast difference in student-to-professor communication due to the much larger class sizes at Cornell. Being able to have your education tailored to your needs is an amazing opportunity.

Spotlight by Stella Giustino ’25