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For Zane Landin, figuring out his career path proved to be a study in exploration.

As an undergraduate, Landin (’22, communication) took a variety of classes from philosophy to psychology to see what he connected with most. Going into his fourth year of college, he was majoring in science, technology and society when he decided to switch to a communication major. At the time, he was serving as the president the student-run College of Education and Integrative Studies (CEIS) Council, which had a goal of improving its communications efforts across the college and on campus. A light came on.

“I didn’t realize at the time that I was doing a lot of communications work,” he says. “That was my inspiration to switch. I felt I was on the right path for what I wanted to do.”

Ashley Jones, a former communications specialist with CEIS who now works as San Bernardino County’s deputy public information officer, recalls that she first met Landin in 2017 when he was elected by his peers to serve as the council’s director of communications, and she was the group’s advisor. She describes Landin as “highly ambitious, energetic, caring and a hard worker.”

“I could see that communication and storytelling was his true passion. He became influenced by some of the work that I did as the CEIS communication specialist, and he saw how he could make a positive difference in the lives of others,” Jones says. “He took his time to come to the decision of changing majors. His first task was to get experience in the field. At that point, I hired him as a communication intern to assist in the production process of our video podcast program, develop graphics for CEIS events and provide support to our Partners in Education fellowship program.”

“When you are doing communications, your job is never stationary,” Landin says. “I find it exciting. I love telling other people’s stories.”

That passion for communications has provided Landin, a first-generation college student, with various opportunities from internships with NASA and General Motors to a trip to the White House to participate in the first-ever Mental Health Youth Action Forum. Landin has been an advocate for mental health for several years.

The Chino native has been working as an internal communications specialist at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. It was founded in 1888 and operates separately from the magazine. He writes and edits two newsletters every week and runs the organization’s internal website.

However, he will head back to California in April to take on the role of an associate product marketing manager at Google as part of a two-year program the tech giant offers.

Through his work with National Geographic, Landin has met global explorers and brilliant minds from Botswana and Mexico. It is a whole different kind of exploration from his college days and seldom dull.

“When you are doing communications, your job is never stationary,” Landin says. “I find it exciting. I love telling other people’s stories.”