{"id":6944,"date":"2021-10-04T09:44:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T14:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=6944"},"modified":"2021-10-04T09:44:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T14:44:53","slug":"uw-la-crosse-alum-finds-calling-as-museum-marketer","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-la-crosse-alum-finds-calling-as-museum-marketer\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-La Crosse alum finds calling as museum marketer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo

Sean Mobley, ’12, is a social media and content specialist for the Museum of Flight in Seattle. As a student at UWL, Mobley recorded podcasts in his residence hall using a Guitar Hero microphone \u2014 experience that has come in handy throughout his career.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sean Mobley came to UWL to study engineering \u2014 his first step toward a career designing roller coasters for Walt Disney World.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But there was one problem: Mobley hated calculus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His struggles put him on a personal roller coaster, which bottomed out when he was declared academically ineligible.\u00a0He\u00a0then\u00a0shot skyward when he found a new major and passion to\u00a0pursue:\u00a0communication studies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just flourished \u2014 it was a real turnaround,\u201d says Mobley, \u201912, now the social media and content specialist for the\u00a0<\/span>Museum of Flight<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in Seattle. \u201cI went from being kicked out of UWL to being on the dean\u2019s list my last five semesters and speaking at commencement. It all came down to figuring out what I liked to do.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In his role with the Museum of Flight \u2014 the largest independent, nonprofit air and space museum in the world \u2014 Mobley makes frequent use of the communication skills he learned at UWL, as well as his lifelong appreciation for history.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He crafts the museum\u2019s social media content and external communications, hosts its podcast,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cFlight Deck,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and is creating a miniseries he hopes will air on public television.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Often, he interviews astronauts and other aviation experts about their experiences \u2014 most notably,\u00a0<\/span>Buzz Aldrin<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a full-circle moment for me,\u201d\u00a0says Mobley, who, years earlier, had invited Aldrin onto a podcast he recorded in his\u00a0residence\u00a0hall.\u00a0\u201cThe response\u00a0was basically that he\u2019s too busy to do an interview with a college\u00a0student.\u00a0Many years later, it was cool to get that opportunity.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Museum of Flight is home to many unique and historic aircraft \u2014 including the\u00a0<\/span>Taylor Aerocar III<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(a \u201croadable\u201d plane from the 1950s), the first-ever\u00a0<\/span>Boeing 747<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and John F. Kennedy\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Air Force One<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Mobley doesn\u2019t limit the scope of his projects to the exhibits within the museum.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The podcast in particular, he says, is an opportunity to explore all kinds of topics related to flight \u2014 including the role of women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community in the advancement of aviation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For one\u00a0<\/span>recent episode<\/span><\/a>, he interviewed the great niece of the first African American woman and Native American to hold a pilot license, Bessie Coleman.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the history, museums came out of a white supremacist ideal, and most of the things collected were from people we saw as the movers and shakers,\u201d he says. \u201cWe don\u2019t have many things from women or people of color or LGBT people, so it\u2019s been fun to explore how minority groups have contributed to the aviation story.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before starting his current position, Mobley oversaw the museum\u2019s 225 volunteer tour guides, managing personnel and ensuring they had the requisite knowledge about the museum.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the pandemic forced the museum to close its doors, Mobley led the creation of virtual tours, using 3D scans that allowed visitors to explore\u00a0aircraft\u00a0inside and out.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID hit the museum industry really hard, and a lot of museums had to close permanently\u201d he notes. \u201cBut we were extremely lucky that people in the community supported us and wanted to make sure this resource stuck around.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mobley says he owes much of his success to UWL, especially to the faculty who supported him after he switched majors.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t hurt that he\u2019s a natural communicator. It\u2019s a\u00a0skill that\u00a0shined even when he was recording in his\u00a0residence hall\u00a0with a Guitar Hero microphone, and that has only grown as his career has taken off.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always loved history, and I\u2019ve always loved talking,\u201d he says. \u201cSo\u00a0this makes a lot of sense for me.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Mobley came to UWL to study engineering \u2014 his first step toward a career designing roller coasters for Walt Disney World.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But there was one problem: Mobley hated calculus.\u00a0 His struggles put him on a personal roller coaster, which bottomed out when he was declared academically ineligible.\u00a0He\u00a0then\u00a0shot skyward when he found a new major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[104],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-6944","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-la-crosse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/6944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=6944"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=6944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}