Florida State University College of Communication & Information (CCI) alumni are living and working across the globe, but there are few places that offer the gorgeous weather and breathtaking views Hawaii does.

More than 2,000 miles from the United States mainland, the Aloha State’s location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean attracts thousands of tourists annually to the island paradise. But Hawaii’s population of full-time residents also has a need for professionals with skills that CCI is teaching their students.

Four of the College’s alumni have found a variety of career opportunities in the nation’s 50th state, thousands of miles from Florida State.

Angelina Collazo, who graduated with a degree in Information, Communication and Technology from Florida State’s School of Library & Information Studies (SLIS) in 2012, is currently serving as a Special Education Teacher at the Waianae Intermediate School in O’ahu as a part of the Teach America program, which provides quality education for children in low-income communities.

“I am a huge proponent for educational equity,” Collazo said.

As a student, Collazo was involved in several community outreach projects as a member of the FSU STARS Alliance and WISE.

“Working with students through STARS, where we try to recruit the next generation of technology professionals, has strong parallels to my classroom, where I try to help students become the best versions of themselves to put forth into the world,” Collazo said.

“My technology degree has been useful over and over again helping me to be a more engaging and successful teacher through my ability to implement technology in the classroom,” Collazo said.

Brianna Huffman was living in Montana and working at the Missoula Public Library when she decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Library Science.

“There are no schools near Montana that offered a MLIS program, so I did some research and decided to apply to Florida State University because their program was 100 percent online, they offered a financial break to out-of-state students and they offered a media specialist endorsement,” Huffman said.

Huffman earned her graduate degree from SLIS in 2008 and shortly after applied for a position with the Hawaii Department of Education with a dream of living in a warmer climate.  After enduring long winters in the Pacific Northwest for the first 30 years of her life, she was offered a librarian position at Kamiloiki Elementary School in Honolulu in 2010.

While all of her MLIS classes were helpful for her position in Hawaii, she believes Multicultural Literature was the most useful.

“Hawaii is such a diverse state with families from all over the country, due to the large military presence on Oahu, and families all over the world,” Huffman said.  “Our student population consists of students from Japan, the Philippines, Samoa, Marshall Islands, Spain, Brazil, and Tonga, just to name a few.  The methods, resources and approaches I learned during that class have helped me become a more effective, understanding and sensitive librarian for my students.”

Emily McNulty, who graduated from Florida State’s School of Communication in 2008 with a Master’s degree in Media and Communication Studies, is currently working as an editor and publicity lead for Navy MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) Marketing on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.  McNulty’s move to Hawaii two years ago with her husband, an active duty U.S. Marine, led her to the position on the base.  She writes and edits all copy for Great Life Hawaii Magazine and its digital publications.

“FSU was an amazing experience for me,” McNulty said. “I branched out a lot by taking a sports management class and digital video classes. My education at Florida State prepared me to work in all fields of marketing and communications. I have done a couple on-air videos and voice overs for videos produced at my job. I have also learned to network and expand my connections in order to help my information get out.”

Nancy Cook Lauer moved to Hawaii in 2005 from Florida after spending five years as the capital bureau chief for the Tallahassee Democrat.  She originally moved to Hawaii to open a state capital bureau for Stephens Media, but three years later, the recession hit and her bureau was closed.  With few employment opportunities at the time, Lauer found her entrepreneurial spirit and started All Hawaii News, a news digest blog primarily covering government.  Ultimately, Lauer rejoined Stephens Media at its Big Island newspapers, where she works full-time as a government reporter, but she has also kept All Hawaii News running.

Lauer, who graduated with a MLIS degree in 2001, took a combination of online and in-person graduate classes at Florida State.

“As an older student, the program taught me many ways to sharpen the research skills I was already using in my career as a journalist. In addition, I learned entire new areas of study, such as Visual Basic and database creation and manipulation that allowed me to dramatically broaden my abilities and better inform the public. More recently, I have been using the knowledge I gained of web design and usability to keep my All Hawaii News blog fresh. The FSU program offered much more practical benefit than I was expecting from a Master’s program.”

Lauer and her husband live in Hilo and absolutely love the Aloha State.

“Everything about the place is diverse, from the geography that allows us to go from snorkeling in crystal turquoise waters to enjoying rainforest steam vents on the Kilauea Volcano to stomping in snow almost 13,000 feet up atop Mauna Kea all in the same day, to the many races, cultures and languages of the people. The variety of food and cultural events here is unparalleled. The attitude is friendly, welcoming and laid back, and we believe this will be a good place to retire.”