Q&A with Michael Cravotta ’85

Tell us about your current position:

I am an Assistant Vice President/Senior Content Manager – Retirement Plan Services at Capital Group, a major investment management company. I am based in Los Angeles, California.

I joined Capital Group about 14 years into my career and have been with the company for the past 27 years. In my current role, I oversee all marketing and educational content related to our retirement plan services. I lead the creative teams responsible for developing and executing campaigns across media channels, including print, social media, web platforms, multimedia presentations, email, and video.

Were there any professors, mentors, or courses that had an impact on you?

I may not have realized it at the time, but many of the classes I took as an undergrad at Brockport had an impact on my career. This includes classes specific to my majors as well as foundational courses in the General Education program (now called Learning for Life). For example:

• • Skills I learned in Intro to Statistics are a regular part of my job when measuring the results of our marketing campaigns.
  • Techniques from Performance Art (Theater) have proven useful in establishing a stronger (sometimes emotional) connection during presentations to clients or upper management.
  • A concept from Psychology 101 contributed to a breakthrough strategy for improving the effectiveness of our sales force by helping them understand client engagement at different cognitive levels (reptilian brain, limbic system, and neocortex). This led to improved sales results.

I credit my professors who provided individualized attention and support, part of the tremendous value of Brockport’s student-to-faculty ratio of 18:1. One mentor who made a particularly indelible impression on me was Dr. Harold Rakov. He had an uncanny way of connecting with students. And now, following as best I can in his footsteps, I return to Brockport one or two times a year to engage with students as a speaker and mentor. I also provide two scholarships for media communications students within the College of Arts and Sciences.

Did you take part in any extracurriculars, internships, or campus organizations?

I didn’t anticipate getting involved to the extent that I did over four years. It was just fun. And yet, in hindsight, I see the personal development I experienced from my association with various on-campus organizations:

• • WBSU Radio/ The Point: Serving as a newscaster for a morning radio show with my roommate, I gained experience editing news feeds and in public speaking.
  • Brockport Student Government: I worked as Assistant Communications Director and participated in several BSG committees, which helped me develop negotiation and organizational skills.
  • The Stylus newspaper: As a features writer, I improved my written communication and time management skills (deadlines are deadlines!). I also served as Advertising Manager, my first steps into a field that would become my career.
  • Faculty/Student Association (FSA): Acted as a student representative of a 12-person organization involved in the business operations of campus dining facilities, the Ratskeller bar, and the bookstore. I participated in the development of new dining concepts, including an on-campus restaurant and a late-night pizza venue on the upper quad called Off-The-Tracks. Also helped plan what is now the food court in the Student Union.
  • Resident Assistant: Great pre-professional management opportunity where I learned to work with others, peer management, and conflict resolution.

Cravotta working at WBSU.

Were there any “aha” moments during your time at Brockport?

Life is a continuous stream of experiences with defining moments just waiting to be discovered. One aha moment for me happened on an ordinary day when I was passing through the Seymour Student Union and came across a career fair in the ballroom. I was a sophomore at the time, still discovering myself and refining my choice of majors. I overheard a conversation between executives from two respected Rochester-area companies — Eastman Kodak and Bausch & Lomb. They were speaking about the potential strength of a combined education in both Communications and Marketing. That seemed at once to be a dare and an epiphany for my path forward. And, it turns out, they were right. A Journalism/Marketing double-major has served me well over a 41-year career.

If you had to attribute your success to one thing at Brockport, what would it be?

There is so much from Brockport that I can attribute to my success. But one experience sticks in my mind: the final newswriting exam at the end of my senior year.

Our professor simulated an actual newsroom in the basement of Drake Memorial Library. Each of us was assigned a desk with a typewriter and a stack of paper (this was 1985, before computers were commonplace in homes or even corporate settings). The goal of the exam was to write a single news article based on straightforward information and interview notes that were provided to us. After four years of studying Journalism, it seemed too easy.

Spoiler: It wasn’t. Throughout the three hours, breaking developments in the story were announced, completely changing the focus and the parameters of the assignment. We had to ask clarifying questions to the professor (our managing editor) and determine if certain information was even newsworthy. With each curve ball, we had to pull our pages out of our typewriters and start from scratch. Panic set in around the room as time began to run out.

Many of us still talk about that “dynamic newsroom” experience. It wasn’t long into my career that I realized it had prepared me for a professional work environment better than any class ever could. In one afternoon, I learned (the hard way) the importance of staying calm, managing ambiguity, and responding as best as possible to unforeseen changes (sometimes called new direction or scope creep in the corporate world). I have seen other professionals struggle with similar situations that can often make or break a career.

What advice would you give to current students?

When asked to share advice to students, I speak about three things I (accidentally) did right at Brockport:

1. 1. Explore: College is a time to discover or rediscover yourself. Even if you are confident about your educational path, take courses outside of your major. The best ones are usually those that pull you out of your comfort zone.
   2. Get involved: Brockport makes this so easy. At a much larger institution, if I wanted to have a morning show on the radio, I’d have to stand in line and compete with hundreds of other students wanting to do the same thing. Brockport’s size and scope of facilities are a game-changer. I walked into WBSU one day as a new freshman and had a show by the end of the year.
   3. Internships: If you do nothing else during your four years, take at least one internship. In the end, I had four. My first wasn’t the experience I had hoped for, but it showed me what I didn’t want to do as a career. And that was just as important. The professional experience from my first three internships, plus work at WBSU and The Stylus, helped secure my final internship at Burroughs Corporation (now Unisys) — a company that offered to hire me full-time on the day I graduated.

By doing these three things, I had a blast at Brockport. But more importantly, I discovered I had also been building a solid resume.

Anything else you’d like to add?

College is much like everything else in life. The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it. Brockport combines the advantages of a close-knit community environment with a surprising range of opportunities, all at a cost that shouldn’t have students paying off student loans for the rest of their lives. Since my undergrad studies, I’ve earned diplomas from larger (far more expensive) institutions, and these experiences have reinforced my belief in Brockport as an optimal place to learn, grow, and thrive. Or, to quote the university’s motto: Own your future. Given a chance to do it all over, I’d choose Brockport again in a heartbeat.