From Westfield to UMass

If an education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst could be described in a single word, for Brooke Frisbie that word would be valuable. Coming from Westfield, Brooke felt that her hometown was “very much similar to Amherst — it’s a Western Mass city.” Westfield State is also near where she grew up, so “it’s a college type of town as well.”

UMass was very enticing to Brooke for its in-state rate. “The scholarships that I had made UMass the best option financially,” she said. This affordability, combined with educational quality that matches more expensive private schools, made UMass a great value—especially as a marketing major at the prestigious Isenberg School of Management.

Looking back on her college experience as a senior, Brooke found value not only in her education, but in the opportunities she was able to pursue in college. In her four years at UMass, Brooke has been able to expand her horizons with “a lot of little jobs around campus.” She has had part-time jobs such as campus security, a stagehand, and her current position at the Big Y supermarket, a Western Massachusetts staple.

Along with those jobs she has had two internships, one with UMass Auxiliary enterprises, where she gained marketing experience with the No. 1 college dining program in the nation. Her current internship with the admissions events department involves “looking into events with other schools — what they do to welcome in new students or to gain new students and show them what the school’s all about … putting together the events, being there to talk to potential students.” Overall, Brooke has found lots of value in these opportunities: “I never thought that I would be working as a stagehand, or I never thought I’d get the internships on campus and see how the school works from behind the scenes.”

The most valuable things Brooke has gained are the friendships she has made in her four years at UMass. As someone who was “pretty shy in high school,” Brooke has gained an “ability to be outgoing and make friends” whether that be coworkers or neighbors in her dorm. She finds the greatest value in “the world of opportunities that I’ve found here.”