Double Duck Drew Miyoda wrote an award-winning thesis and landed a job at a Chicago nonprofit.
Drew Miyoda, a Double Duck who was born and raised in Southern California, came to UO in search of change.
“I felt like I needed to get out of the Orange County bubble,” Miyoda said.
He was drawn to Oregon’s lush natural beauty and overall atmosphere, but Eugene’s vibe — radically different from what he was used to — lured him to UO.
Miyoda entered as a business major but soon realized that course of study wasn’t for him. He switched to the UO School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) his sophomore year, hoping for a field that would tap his creativity.
Miyoda said learning about creative strategy sparked his love for advertising, which was something he wasn’t getting in his business classes.
“Once I started taking those advertising classes, it kind of clicked that the passion I had for telling incredible stories — and weaving them together through a strategic narrative — meant something to me,” Miyoda said.
Thinking strategically in a creative realm set the foundation for many of his activities as an undergrad and as a student in the Advertising and Brand Responsibility Master’s program, he said.
Miyoda was the social media manager for his UO club volleyball team, and he increased followers and engagement by posting compelling slides for a targeted audience.
In addition, he was a staff member for Student Orientation Programs. Known as an SOSer, the job helped Miyoda hone his skills in various communication styles and build strong relationships with his coworkers and incoming students. Following his time as an SOSer, he continued working for Student Orientation Programs as both an intern for communications and a student coordinator for the experience and design team.
“These two roles were so valuable in preparing me for my career, as they allowed me to put everything I was learning in the SOJC into practice,” Miyoda said. “The only difference was that I wasn’t doing mock work anymore. Instead, I was doing work for an audience of hundreds of thousands of people and serving as an ambassador of the UO’s brand.”
A winning master’s thesis project on Asian representation
After graduating with an advertising bachelor’s degree in 2021, Miyoda took a gap year before he returned to the SOJC to pursue his Advertising and Brand Responsibility Master’s. The unique program focuses on working for brands that promote sustainable development as well as cultural and economic responsibility.
And that led Miyoda to research a topic for his master’s thesis project focused on the representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in media, a topic he remains passionate about.
“I always knew and saw and realized that Asian-American and Asian people in the media are portrayed in kind of a pigeonholed way,” Miyoda said. “We’re either shown to be like these super smart whiz kids, or we’re comedic relief. We’re just shown in horrific, just terrible, stereotyped, archetyped ways,” he said.
His project looked into the historical reasons behind these harmful representations, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first significant law restricting immigration in the United States.
“(My research) really opened the floodgates of understanding not only how narratives are built surrounding different communities and cultures, but what irresponsible representation does to minorities and communities of color,” he said.
The project won Most Outstanding Advertising and Brand Responsibility Thesis Project.
SOJC prepared him for his work
Miyoda now works as a marketing specialist at Aspire, a Chicago nonprofit that serves individuals with disabilities. He runs the organization’s social media accounts and supports fundraising campaigns, external communications and graphic design.
Storytelling and representation are central to Miyoda’s work at Aspire. His work prioritizes accessible communication and responsible representation of the communities the nonprofit serves.
“Being able to use my work to support and celebrate a community that has historically been overlooked, and too often misrepresented, means so much to me,” Miyoda said. “Knowing that I can play even a small part in changing those narratives and helping create a future where people with disabilities are seen, valued and celebrated for who they are fills my cup beyond measure.”
His work includes traditional advertising, pitching and managing relationships with the public, as well as fundraising campaigns that have helped raise $10 million to support the communities that Aspire serves, providing housing, job training and employment programs, life enrichment services and community experiences.
Miyoda said SOJC courses and community played a major role in preparing him for his career and entering the communications field. A specific class that influenced him was Media Professions, taught by former senior journalism instructor Lisa Heyamoto.
The class showcased the endless paths that an SOJC degree opened up for him.
“(That course) was something that instantly sparked this notion that there are so many more possibilities when it comes to the world of creativity,” he said.
Miyoda said building relationships with faculty members helped him in his professional journey.
“Early in college, I didn’t take advantage of (speaking to faculty) as much,” Miyoda said. “I was like, ‘Oh, you know, I’m just here. I'll do classes and whatnot.’”
But during the latter half of his undergrad years, he was much more proactive about interacting with professors. “I really saw the return, and there were a lot of amazing conversations with faculty members,” he said.
“I felt like the SOJC did an incredible job of really setting me up for success,” Miyoda said. “No matter what your major is or what you have an interest or focus in, there is this kind of welcoming nature at SOJC. I know a lot of my friends outside the SOJC were either jealous or they just were like, ‘I can't believe that this is the school you’re in.’”
Angelina Handris is a public relations major from Portland, Oregon, minoring in writing, public speaking and critical reasoning. She is an SOJC Communications writing intern and serves as associate social media editor at the Daily Emerald. Her other interests include fashion, history, cooking and mass media.
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