Adviser’s Note:  Journalism I students interviewed Mrs. Chelsea McKay, NDA’s Marketing and Communications Manager.  Two students’ feature stories are posted here.

“My job is to sell Notre Dame Academy,” said Mrs. Chelsea McKay, Marketing and Communications Manager of NDA. 

McKay has been working at NDA for almost three years now but has been in this profession for around ten years. 

“The work that Mrs. McKay does is critical for NDA,” said English teacher Carolyn Brown.

McKay takes on numerous different roles–all in one job.

“There are a lot of layers to it,” she said. “I run our school accounts, I run the newsletters, I help with communications for athletics, admissions, plays, musicals, and I am the main point of contact for any outside news sources.”

Along with those “layers,” she also runs the NDA Facebook and Instagram pages.

With her role at NDA, she always has new things thrown at her in various sizes of workloads. 

“Sometimes it is difficult around the weekends and balancing with my kids. But leaning on a coworker is very helpful,” she said. 

McKay has been able to balance her home life and work life throughout her time at NDA, and she continues to do so during this school year. 

She first became intrigued with marketing due to her professor at Marian University. 

McKay said, “Bill Albrecht was the marketing teacher at Marian, and he was able to fascinate me and make me gravitate towards marketing.”

At the beginning of her marketing career, social media was not as big of a marketing platform as it is now. 

She thinks that social media will continue to dominate the marketing world. 

“Digital marketing and photography is going to grow to be more popular because people like their info quick and short,” she said.

McKay chose the job that made her happy, and she doesn’t feel the burden of walking into an unfulfilling job, but walking into a job she loves. 

“Keep doing what you’re doing and what makes you happy,” she told the Journalism I class. “If you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”—Zoe Holubar

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“It’s a behind-the-scenes kind of job,” said manager of marketing Mrs. Chelsea McKay.

McKay has been working as Notre Dame’s manager of marketing for 3 years but has had marketing as her job for a decade. “I love what I do,” she said.

Her job includes social media pages, newsletters, alumni magazines, communication for athletics, admissions, plays and musicals as well as being a main contact for outside news sources.

McKay makes the school, staff, and students look good with photos she takes herself and sometimes from stories written on the Tritonian by NDA students.

“There’s a lot of layers to it,” said McKay, “a lot of new projects pop up during the day.” It’s challenging for her and might get a little repetitive, but she finds it fun.

“The work that she does is critical for Notre Dame,” said Mrs. Brown, a staff member.

Some advice from McKay to the students of Notre Dame is to “keep doing what makes you happy. Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”–Audrey Fortney