JD Pelegrino

Major: News
Minors: Spanish and English

Hometown: Lake Villa, IL

Favorite Drake memory: One of my favorite Drake memories has to be building The Bark podcast with Noah Manderfeld. We took an idea that we had, knew how to make it work, and ran with it. We won an Iowa College Media Award from one of the episodes we submitted, have gained a following of many Drake alumni, and are up on iTunes and other platforms. Collaborating with other successful and driven students will almost always result in learning, recognition, and fun! So either that or the 2016 Welcome Weekend foam party. KIDDING, kidding.

One tip for Drake freshmen: Jump right into life at Drake! Don’t play the nervous first-year card (valid though). You have incredible opportunities here that are just waiting to get picked up. There is NO TIME to waste! Get involved in a few things early and by your senior year when you are writing your senior spotlight social media post, you will have had several internships, have been the EIC or President of a student organization, could be working at Meredith Corporation or another great company and will be involved only in what’s most important to you. Do not waste any time, it goes by in the blink of an eye!

Plans after graduation (if you know yet): After graduation, I plan on working in communications/marketing in Des Moines. One day, I would like to move to Chicago or another big city and into a role in sports.