Meet Meet three of the incoming Fall ‘22 Peer Advisors: Emily Costello, Caroline Buck, & Erin Diacik

By Grace Keller and Gabriella Grondalski

As the spring semester comes to an end, new and exciting changes occur. One of the changes that occurs in the Communication department is the welcoming of new peer advisors for the following academic year. Emily, Erin, and Caroline are three of the incoming Fall 2022 peer advisors for the Communication department. 

Emily Costello is from Winchester, MA, and came to UMass because of the University’s size and all of the different opportunities and paths an individual can pursue. She is a rising junior at UMass, double majoring in Communication and Journalism with a concentration in Public Relations. Emily chose to pursue the Communication major because of how broad it is and its versatility. “As a Comm major, you don’t have to do one certain thing, as with other majors it seems more selective. My freshman year, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my major but as I took more classes I was able to direct where I wanted to go with it.” 

She is thinking of joining the PR club and spends much of her free time hanging out with friends and working at Bed Bath and Beyond. Emily wanted to become a peer advisor for a few reasons.  She was always interested in being more involved in the department, helping her peers, and blog writing as a way for her to expand upon her skills. One of her favorite memories from her time at UMass so far was move-in day freshman year & the hockey team winning the NCAA National Championship this semester. 

Caroline Buck is a rising junior from Andover, MA and transferred to UMass this semester from the University of Tampa. She knows people who have attended UMass and has heard all good things, which helped her with the decision to transfer. She chose to pursue the Communication major because she enjoys reading and writing, but the deciding factor was when she toured NBC. “One of the deciding factors, when I realized what I want my major to be, was when I got to tour NBC in New York. I thought this is the coolest thing ever and I want to do something like this one day.” Communication seemed like the right fit for a career in media and production.

A fun fact about Caroline is that she is taking her Real Estate exam soon! She worked in the industry previously and found that it was a career she enjoyed. Caroline wanted to become a peer advisor to get more involved in the department, and also share what she has learned as a transfer student. Her best memory is coming to campus and being able to experience its size in person. The University of Tampa was small and had very few residence halls, and she found the size of UMass’s campus to be amazing.

Erin Diacik is a rising senior from Lauren May, PA, and came to UMass after a family friend recommended it and its location in New England. When she first started as a freshman, she was uncertain about what she wanted to focus on and loved that the Communication major provided her with room and time to figure that out. Erin also is interested in public relations and media economics, and she found Communication to be a great bridge between the subjects. Along with majoring in Communication, she is minoring in Political Science with the hopes of one day working for a large food corporation. “I’ve always thought it would be cool to work for a food company. Working for a big name food company has been something that has always piqued my interest.”

In her free time, she loves to listen to crime podcasts, cook, shop, and work at the recreation center. Erin said she wanted to become a peer advisor because she had great experiences as a freshman talking to the peer advisors and wants to have a similar impact on her peers. In Fall 2019, she studied in Seville, Spain, and wants to be able to share this experience and encourage more students to take the opportunity to study abroad. Her favorite memory while at UMass has been living in the JQA tower with all of her friends and a great view of campus.

We are looking forward to having Emily, Caroline, Erin, and the other incoming peer advisors join the Communication peer advising team this upcoming year!