Alumni Spotlight: Lydia Lopez
After graduating in 2025 with a major in English with an emphasis in creative writing and minors in Technical Communication and Rhetoric and Landscape Architecture, USU alum Lydia Lopez’s career is taking a new turn as an SEO and AEO Marketing Specialist at iFIT.
In the role, Lyida works to optimize content for search engines and large language models. This involves craft descriptions with specific key words and phrases, as well as identifying what key words and phrases different users will search for, so that when someone searches for fitness equipment that iFIT sells their products will come up as results tailored to them.
Lydia describes how “SEO and AEO Marketing is all about anticipating the many, many different ways people will search up your product and writing content to fit those many, many needs. One treadmill won't be right for everyone, but you can make sure every 1000 ways it can fit is known.”
The skills she needed for this job came from her work in the USU English Department.
"Classes in User Experience for Technical Communication and Rhetoric (TCR) taught me how to design for audiences and think about the possible pitfalls of design. Classes in writing taught me to know your subject through research and to polish up the presentation through revision — shoutout to Professors Amber Caron and Jennifer Sinor!”
She sees her time at USU not only as a time to study literature, but as a way to prepare for a career. “Do not let the job descriptions and requirements scare you. Your time in school IS experience,” she recalls. “All of those wonderful, grueling writing workshops full of collaboration, facilitation, feedback, and revision is worth something.” For her, finding success post-graduation is a process of reapplying one’s skills into new context and marketing these skills in a new light.
Any job out there requires students to be able to communicate, a skill honed by the English Department. Lydia believes that with AI becoming increasingly influential, this is a high-demand skill. Remembering the hiring process, she says, “A promise of knowing and articulating words at their base was valuable to them, even in this age where AI is prevalent.”
This is a large part of her advice for students at USU: to “not fear AI. Learn the foundations. Studying English through literature and practicing it through writing and speaking is incredibly valuable. Being able to just comprehend gives you an edge, whether you are taking a crash certification course or talking to key stakeholders. You will be able to communicate and you can learn anything.”
Her job has also taught her the value of finding keywords when looking for jobs. Because many applications use AI as a filter, finding key words that capture skills and experience can allow someone to become noticeable in job applications.
One of the most important key words to remember though: empathy and humanity. She urges that these are incredibly important. “People see that, whether they are your teachers, interviewers, peers, colleagues, or consumers — and that is vital. That is what will make you stand out.”
As a mother, Lydia’s children frequently motivate her to work to build a better future. Soon, she hopes to become a broader marketing specialist. Additionally, she is helping to build a charter school, set to open in 2028. Though marketing was not her intended career path, she feels that she has learned much in the role.
Her success, she believes, comes from the skills she learned while at USU. “Without the English Department as my foundation, I would not have made it this far. You are all in good hands. Take care!”