On Thursday, September 11th, 2025, Lisa Shore-Staats came to Kennesaw State University to speak on her career journey and financial wellness. Lisa is a Senior Communication Partner at Truist Bank and graduated with a Master’s in Integrated Global Communication from KSU in 2023. Lisa’s presentation took place in a small lecture hall on campus, and when I got there, it was already packed. When she saw me looking around for a seat, Lisa approached me and directed me to an open seat in the front row. I immediately felt welcomed by her incredibly kind demeanor, and her friendly, fun attitude colored her lecture with a positive, digestible tone.
Before attending, I was expected this conversation to have more to do with career development and the job search, but Lisa spent most of her time focusing on financial wellness, the importance of saving, and how to grow in one’s financial literacy. She provided great resources and advice for banking, investing, and tracking spending along with ways to learn more about personal finance. Lisa’s husband, mother, and a few of her colleagues at Truist attending in support. Throughout her speaking, Lisa referenced her colleagues’ knowledge and encouraged attendees to speak with some of them if we had any more questions.
After the lecture, I spoke with Lisa, who—again—was unbelievably kind and friendly. Her warmth was a great encouragement, as this is one of my first experiences with networking, and I was feeling pretty nervous. She and I discussed banking, discovering and developing job skills, and how nerve-wracking it can be as a young woman to be breaking into both the financial world and the professional world. She encouraged me to message her on LinkedIn if I ever wanted to chat. I also got the chance to speak with a KSU professor who stressed to me and another attendee the importance of networking and maintaining connections early on in your career. After that, I spoke to Vern, a Financial Inclusion Ambassador at Truist who offered some financial advice and gave a friend of mine his contact information so that he could help her set up a savings account.
I did not get the lessons I expected from this experience, but I did get to dip my toes into the world of networking and communicating with professionals. I learned valuable lessons about how to manage money and got to meet people I would have otherwise not been able to connect with, including another student, Samantha, who is also starting her networking and career journey. I definitely plan to keep in touch with her, so we can support each other in these daunting next steps.