Masa Pesic

How did you first hear about Rize, and why did you decide to take a Rize course?

Masa is a junior at St. Mary of the Woods College in Indiana, but her story begins in Serbia. She's a volleyball player on scholarship, works as an academic peer tutor in the Learning Resource Center, and serves as a resident assistant. Masa balances a packed schedule with a major in digital marketing with minors in graphic design and leadership.

Masa knew exactly what she wanted to do by her junior year of high school and researched options before committing to her school. When she reached St. Mary of the Woods, her advisor recommended Rize courses during sophomore from the Digital Marketing and Web Design programs.

“I never took an online course before, so I was curious,” Masa said. “My advisor told me that it’s really good and all the previous students who took it had great experiences.” After her first course in Social Media Marketing, she was hooked on the practical, project-based format. She's since taken courses in User Experience/Web Design and Marketing Analytics.

How did you apply your Rize skills outside of the classroom?

Masa landed an internship at one of Serbia's largest technology companies, selling everything from washing machines to PlayStations. Through a chance encounter at a yoga class with her mom, she met the company's marketing director, who mentioned they needed a designer with a fresh, younger perspective.

Though she was only a sophomore, Masa’s confidence in her coursework helped her land the role. “Through Rize, it was literally like I was working in a company because we had real life projects. I think that’s another reason why she offered me the internship, because she felt like I already did something similar in college even if I didn’t work a ‘real’ job yet.”

During her internship, Masa turned that experience into results:

Content calendar and brand consistency: The company's Instagram and visuals were "all over the place" with no consistency or clear posting plan. Masa applied what she learned about content calendars and brand image to create a consistent posting strategy. "I was trying to help them to be consistent with their posting... so they can say, even if they're not scrolling through their page, they see a random post, and they can tell, 'Oh, this is from them.'" She planned specific posting schedules (like one reel or three posts per week) so the team knew exactly what and when to post.

Campaign creation: She designed a summer campaign for Bluetooth speakers that appeared across Instagram, the company webpage, billboards in her town, and TV ads. "It was kind of cool to see my work everywhere." She tracked campaign performance using Google Ads, monitoring views, engagement, conversions, and ultimately ROI.

Website improvements: She created new icons and navigation elements that would appear consistently across all platforms—TV ads, Instagram posts, and web pages—to refresh the company's digital presence.

Outside of her internship, Masa also used her skills to help a friend with their business:

Friend's nail business: For a class project, she created a complete three-month content calendar and marketing strategy for her friend's nail tech business. When she showed her friend the detailed plan (including specific post designs, TikTok strategy, and content calendar), her friend asked to use the materials. Following Masa's strategy, the business gained about 200 followers in the first month and continues to grow, with significantly increased views and reach.

How did this experience impact your career trajectory?

The internship provided a “behind-the-scenes” look at the professional world. "I just learned how to work with people, how the environment in the company looks like, how you should dress. Every little detail... it was just like everything in general was just really nice."

For Masa, getting this opportunity as a sophomore felt like a significant way to jump start her career. "A lot of people don't get the opportunities to, for example, internships or even to be around business and everything in a real office before they finish college. So I'm so grateful that I got the opportunity before I finished college." It also helped to build her confidence and a track record of achievements that she could continue to build on: "If I did it when I was 19, I think I could do it even when I'm older and when I finish college and when I gain even more knowledge and experience."

What's next for you?

Masa is focused on completing her junior year and senior years while staying open to new growth. Her short-term goal is to "get every opportunity that is in front of me, because that's the reason why I'm here—just to grow, academically, and in every way, including athletics."

After graduation, she plans to pursue a Master's degree, likely in Business Administration, though she's still deciding. She initially considered Sports Marketing, but learned from her advisor that her Digital Marketing degree already qualifies her to work in that field. Now, she feels confident that her current studies have already built the bridge to her dream career, leaving her free to focus on her long-term professional development.