{"id":2080,"date":"2016-05-27T13:18:11","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T18:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maryville.edu\/mpress\/?p=2080"},"modified":"2016-06-21T13:54:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T18:54:43","slug":"patton-2016-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maryville.edu\/mpress\/patton-2016-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"Allie Patton, ’16, Finds Success by Embracing Change"},"content":{"rendered":"
Reading time: 5 minutes<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Allie Patton, \u201916, graduated with her MA in Organizational Leadership and Development<\/a> on May 7. A few weeks later, she received a promotion at her job with local public relations giant Fleishman-Hillard.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure my new graduate degree helped with that,\u201d Patton says.<\/p>\n It all began when Patton landed an internship at FleishmanHillard in 2014. A year later, she became a junior business partner working as a specialist in talent development, and began working on her master\u2019s. Now she\u2019s a senior specialist.<\/p>\n Patton helps employees figure out ways to become happier and more productive at work. For example, she recently brainstormed with an employee about her perception of herself as an important part of the company.<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent a long time rerouting her thinking and looking at things from a more positive perspective,\u201d Patton says. \u201cShe realized that she did add value, which had not been something that was obvious to her before.\u201d<\/p>\n “I wanted everyone to realize that changing your mind and trying different paths is completely healthy and acceptable. \u00a0I also wanted people to see that there is success in the end – I love my job.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Patton also helps people take a step back before leaping to conclusions, with the aid of a ladder concept she learned in her Ë¿¹ÏÊÓƵAPPprogram. \u201cI\u2019ll draw a ladder and say, \u2018Make sure you\u2019re not jumping up to the tenth rung before you know all your facts,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Patton gets a tremendous amount of satisfaction from her work. \u201cIt\u2019s so exciting that I get to help people every single day,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The Power of Change and Personal Choice<\/strong><\/p>\n On her own career ladder, Patton has several thoughts: keep climbing at FleishmanHillard now, and later, perhaps work for, or start, a nonprofit organization. She\u2019d like to help disadvantaged people work their way into careers, an issue she became aware of during an internship with Crisis Nursery, which supports families undergoing severe stress.<\/p>\n No matter what she chooses, Patton believes it won\u2019t be a mistake. She looks at the many different decisions she made that eventually brought her to FleishmanHillard: changing colleges three times, switching majors from social work to organizational leadership, and taking another job that wasn\u2019t the best fit. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s ever a wrong choice,\u201d Patton said. \u201cIt\u2019s about how you learn from the choice not working out, and how you change after that choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n