Ewing, NJ: The New Jersey Communication Association honored TCNJ’s Dr. John Pollock and multiple Communication student co-authors by creating a new institutional mentorship award at the NJCA’s annual conference April 14, 2018. In addition, two TCNJ teams won ties for “best student paper in the state” awards for papers on cross-national coverage of urban relocation and US multicity coverage of opioid abuse.
Presenting the institutional mentorship award to Dr. Pollock and six TCNJ students presenting papers at the annual conference, Dr. Todd Kelshaw, associate professor at Montclair State University and co-chair of the awards committee, stated: “This new annual award intends to encourage and recognize institutions that, in the context of a given conference, engage in particularly vital ways in both quantity and quality of scholarly contributions. We wanted to hold up TCNJ as a model that other institutions should emulate. Our hope is that, with such an annual award, we will spur faculty to take a systematic approach, as John Pollock does in his courses, thus heightening conference participation both quantitatively and qualitatively. Dr. Kelshaw continued: “From my perspective, the 2018 Institutional Contribution to Scholarship Award celebrates the particularly rich conference participation of Dr. John Pollock and TCNJ Communication Studies students. While recognizing the quantity and quality of their scholarly work presented at the 2018 conference, the award also acknowledges TCNJ’s vital annual contributions throughout the association’s 22-year history. TCNJ Communication Studies students are engaged in exciting and consequential things.”
Accepting the award along with six TCNJ Communication Studies students, Dr. Pollock commented: “We are all excited to accept this award for faculty mentoring and student-faculty collaboration. I design my communication research methods and international communication classes so that students are motivated to meet not simply undergraduate, but rather ‘professional” standards of excellence, generating multiple drafts to craft papers suitable for presentation at scholarly conferences at state, national, and international levels. Our TCNJ students were the first undergraduates to receive a ‘best student paper’ award at the first annual conference of the NJCA in 1997, and our students have earned “best student paper” awards in between one third to one half of the additional 21 conferences since that year. I could not be more delighted by the careful mentoring of every faculty member in the Communication Studies Department, and by the dedication and industry of our highly talented students. I hope the presentations and awards at the NJCA conference will inspire our students to set higher and more ambitious personal and professional goals.”
In addition, two TCNJ student papers tied for awards for “best student paper in the state”: “Nationwide Coverage of Opioid Abuse: Testing Community Structure Theory”, authored by Brittany Cruz ‘19, Sabrina Garcia ‘19, Chris Moncada ‘18, Morgan Tarrant ‘18, Nolan DeVoe ‘18, and John C. Pollock; and “Cross-national Coverage of Urban Relocation: Testing Community Structure Theory”, by Patrick Moore ‘18, O’dean Eccleston ‘19, Annette Espinoza ‘20, Madison Storcella ‘20, Melissa Morgan ‘17, and John C. Pollock.
Five other co-authored TCNJ student papers were presented at the NJCA conference: “Cross-national Coverage of Drug Trafficking: Testing Community Structure Theory”, by Nicole Tomkiel ‘18, Rachel Mosca ’19, Rachel Pastor ‘18, Brendan Shamy ‘18, Tristan Gibson ‘18, Melissa Morgan ‘17, and John C. Pollock; “Nationwide Coverage of the Travel Ban: Testing Community Structure Theory”, by Gabriella Praarracho ‘19, Kelsey Capestro ‘18, Allison Kroepfl ‘19, Nolan DeVoe ‘18, and John C. Pollock; “Nationwide Coverage of the Transgender Military Ban: Testing Community Structure Theory”, by Tyler Law ’19, Vanessa Sandova ‘19, Joshua Peebles ‘18, Kevin Walsh ’19, Karin Flannery ‘19, Jared Kofsky ‘20, and John C. Pollock; “Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Marijuana Legalization: Testing Community Structure Theory”, by Patrick Moore ’18, Joe Adams ‘20, Kade LaForge ‘20, Pat Sexton ’19, Kevin Walsh ‘19, and John C. Pollock; and “Cross-national Coverage of Human Trafficking: Testing Community Structure Theory”, by Brittany Cruz ‘19, Sierra Culloo ‘19, Kristin DePasquale ‘19, Sidney Padilla ’19, Caroline Quinn ‘19, Melissa Morgan ’17, and John C. Pollock. Different versions of the “opioid abuse” and “drug trafficking” papers were also presented by, respectively, Brittany Cruz ’19 and Nicole Tomkiel ’18, at the biannual University of Kentucky Health Communication Conference, April 14, 2018, in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Communication Studies Department at The College of New Jersey is among the institution’s largest academic departments, enrolling over 300 majors. Student papers like those presented at the 2018 NJCA annual conference helped the TCNJ Department of Communication Studies win the 2013 “Rex Mix Program of Achievement Award” for best undergraduate communication studies department in the nation, presented by the National Communication Association, reinforcing the Department of Communication Studies’ reputation as a “national leader in student-faculty engagement”.
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