By Alana Adams
On March 13, 2019, students and faculty gathered in celebration of the Communication Studies Department’s first #SpringHasComm Student Achievement Showcase. The event planning was led by Department Chair, Dr. Yifeng Hu, and the Communication Studies Awareness Team: Alana Adams, Kristine Spike, Lorriann Guzman, Jason Monto, Ryan Soldati, Michael Milazzo, and Caroline Muccifori.
The purpose of the showcase was to highlight the variety of projects that our students have worked on throughout their careers at TCNJ and demonstrate the diversity of the major’s three tracks – Public/Mass Communication, Interpersonal/Organizational Communication, and Radio/Television/Film. Another goal was to increase pride and recognition of our students to a larger audience. To quote Dr. Susan Ryan, who teaches Introduction to Film Studies, Introduction to Television Studies and Community Documentary Production, “People had a problem understanding what goes on here.” The first session of presentations was dedicated to students’ poster projects, which covered a variety of topics and Communication Studies courses. Students presented topics from Dr. Pollock’s Research Methods and International Communication courses, Dr. Hu’s New Media and Health Communication, Intercultural/Racial Communication, and Independent Study courses, and Dr. Fazio’s Independent Study course.
To exhibit the skills of Radio/Television/Film students, the event also featured a variety of screenings. These included videos from Professor Faust-Gaynor’s Art of Editing course, Professor Byrne’s Advanced Television Production course, Professor Johnson-Frizell’s Directing for the Camera course, and Dr. Ryan’s Community Documentary course.
Student achievement was further highlighted through an internship breakout session in which nine students introduced internships they have had relating to Communication Studies. During this session, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about where our students are placed in the field and how to be successful in getting internships.
The showcase proved to be a great success and demonstrated that Communication Studies is just as academically rigorous and rewarding as other majors. To quote Dr. Hu, “I am most proud of the enthusiasm and entrepreneurship of our own students, especially the planning team who spearheaded the idea of Communication Studies awareness and I was thrilled to support their initiatives through this journey. This is our first event and we definitely want to make this a new tradition going forward.”
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