Balancing a full-time career with graduate coursework as a mother of two young children is no small feat. For Brooke Hanson, her growth mindset gave her the motivation to invest in her education. As a working mom with a busy schedule, she found success in the online University of Wisconsin Digital Marketing Graduate Certificates.
Brooke always knew she wanted to go into writing and work in a creative space, which led her to earning her BA in English with a minor in advertising from UW-Eau Claire. After graduating, the Kimberly, Wisconsin native wrote articles as an intern at Fox Cities Magazine. Her career would eventually lead her to Festival Foods, a Wisconsin supermarket chain where she had previously worked during college.
In her over 13 years at Festival, Brooke has continually looked for ways to advance her career. She’s had several roles within the company, starting in the produce section on the store floor and later transitioning into marketing at the corporate level. She’s now a digital engagement specialist, where she writes texts for the Mobile Club and weekly ad emails. She also manages vendor partnerships and supports the digital coupon and gas rewards programs.
“I’ve always been really interested in growth,” she said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have stayed at the same company and kept growing. I was always looking for opportunities to learn and to see where I could lean in and become more of an asset to our organization.”
After her annual review two years into her marketing position, Brooke thought going back to school was a way to continue growing.
“I wanted to learn more, but I didn’t want to leave Festival to do it,” she said. “There’s so much opportunity here.”
Brooke weighed her options, and at one point considered an MBA program. But as a parent with a full-time job, an on-campus and multi-year program wasn’t the best fit for her. She met with a colleague and learned about online certificates that were more affordable and less time-intensive compared to a master’s degree program. After receiving more information from enrollment advisers at UW Online Collaboratives, she proceeded with next steps.
“My husband and I chatted about it,” she said. “One week, I was like, ‘I think I might do this.’ And then the next week, I was like, ‘I applied and I got in. Here we go.’”
Brooke enrolled in both the Digital Marketing Analytics and Digital Marketing Management graduate certificates. It was a challenge balancing coursework with parenting and her career, but the flexibility that came with online learning made it possible.
“I knew that for one year, I just had to buckle down,” she said. “Having it all online was really helpful. I didn’t have to show up to a lecture hall and be gone for my kid’s concert, art show, or ballet.”
Brooke even found creative ways to fit in coursework as a working mom.
“I could go to the YMCA, my daughter could go into her gymnastics class, and then I could sit at the Y and have a coffee and watch some videos or do homework. It was nice to be able to fit it in.”
Brooke appreciated Preview Week, a period before the semester starts which gives students early access to courses on Canvas, the program’s learning management system. This helped her get a head start on courses and made each semester less daunting. Better yet, she appreciated how courses were structured into weekly sections.
“Seeing it broken up week-by-week and looking at everything you can accomplish if you just put a couple hours towards it every week was so gratifying,” she said.
Brooke was able to quickly apply what she learned directly to her role at Festival. When the company updated its terms and conditions, she had a better understanding of the changes after taking the DMK 730: Legal and Ethical Considerations in Digital Marketing course.
“I was really able to provide some insight to our team,” she said. “We met with our legal counsel, but I was able to lean in and be like, ‘This is what I know about digital marketing law.’ That’s not something I would’ve been able to do without taking that class.”
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The two digital marketing certificates allowed Brooke to combine her strengths in project management with areas like analytics that were less familiar to her.
“One kind of informs the other,” she said. “Knowing the analytics helps you have a really good strategy and be able to manage projects more efficiently. They’ve really intertwined.”
She developed her analytics skills in DMK 700: SEO and Digital Marketing Research. While in the course, Brooke and her classmates built a fictional business and website by writing content, tracking analytics, and ensuring optimization for search engines. Brooke says she hasn’t just acquired new skills from projects like this—she’s gained a newfound confidence in her role compared to when she first started the program.
“I just was very unsure as I was going into all my meetings,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I had a strong voice because I didn’t trust my voice.”
That also changed after learning from instructors like Pam Culver, with whom Brooke had worked closely with during her DMK 740: Digital Marketing Management course. Brooke said Pam gave her invaluable feedback and helped her feel less overwhelmed by the course’s content.
“Going in and learning from her and from my other professors, I felt like I could apply to be a marketing manager. I feel like I’m ready for that now,” she said. “And whether or not that worked out for me at that time didn’t even matter. Just knowing I had the confidence to do it and I had the skill set to take on that next role felt really good to me.”
By investing in herself, Brooke has shown that determination and a willingness to grow can help you feel more empowered in the work that you do. Having completed both certificates this past spring, she’s continued to learn more about digital marketing outside of the program through webinars, white papers, and industry resources.
For those considering an online UW certificate program, Brooke says taking the leap is worth it.
“You’re not going to regret learning more. You’re not going to regret getting better at your job. This is something that you can have with you for the rest of your career.”
Want to learn more about the UW Digital Marketing Analytics Graduate Certificate or the Digital Marketing Management Graduate Certificate? Contact an enrollment adviser at 608-800-6762 or learn@uwex.wisconsin.edu.
UW Digital Marketing is a collaboration of two UWs. Brooke earned her graduate certificates from UW-La Crosse.