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What's New:

The Bloomsburg University Xi Omega chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the National Communication Honor Society, has been named the 2019 Chapter of the Year by the National Communication Association.

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Featured
Student

Abby Astrachan

My name is Abby Astrachan. I am majoring in Communication Studies on the Organizational
track and minoring in Emergent Media. This summer I had the chance to take on TWO
internships at the same time! At first this sounded scary to me because I knew it would be a lot of work and a lot of time, but I knew these would be incredible experiences that I couldn’t pass up. The first internship I took on was at a very well-known insurance agency in my town called Glatfelter Insurance Group (GIG). I was an intern in their marketing department on the content team. During my time at Glatfelter I had a lot of responsibilities on my plate including
writing and publishing blog posts, creating promotional social media images, organizing content, taking pictures and videos at events, and so much more. I really felt like I was a part of a team at Glatfelter and I always felt that my thoughts were valued and appreciated. The second internship I had was with the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education (PBCOHE) as their remotely located social media and marketing intern. I was this organization’s first intern ever, which was so exciting for me because that meant that I would be laying the groundwork for possible future interns. Because I was the first intern PBCOHE has ever had, there was a lot of learning and playing around with different ways of advertising and marketing. I had the chance to attend a retreat with the executive board in June where I was able to learn more about the organization and actually meet the faces of the people I was working with and promoting. Overall I had a crazy busy summer, but it was full of a lot of growth both personally and professionally. I gained more of a sense of time management, I
became way more organized than I already was, I learned to speak up if I have opinions or
suggestions, and I learned that my decision to major in Communication Studies was the best decision in my college career thus far. If I had one piece of advice for anyone reading this it would be to take risks and always look to build your resume. Taking on two internships at once
was a risk for me, but I couldn’t be more proud of what I accomplished this summer. I feel
very thankful for all of my experiences this summer and feel so confident in my abilities to succeed in any job I take on following my graduation this upcoming May 2020!

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Featured Student

Ashlyn Burkholder
Hello my name is Ashlyn Burkholder and this past summer and into the beginning of my senior year, I had the opportunity to intern as a Marketing and Public Relations intern at the York Fair and Expo Center. Beginning in May 2019, I started working as "intern 2" in the York Fair and Expo Center administration office. Originally when I interviewed for this position, they were looking for an Event Planning intern and a Marketing and Public Relations intern. The other intern that they hired and myself took on both internship roles at once and we were able to get the WHOLE experience by learning about marketing, public relations, event planning, sponsorships, and of course the typical office intern work of copying papers, mailing envelopes, etc. I enjoyed this internship because although our main focus was planning for the fair in September, we were also helping plan for other events that the Expo Center hosts throughout the year. It involved helping schedule 2020 calendar year events that the Expo Center will host, making marketing materials for events, updating our website, and even doing early morning news interviews. Taking courses such as Communication for Business Professionals with Dr. Shorter and Interviewing with Dr. Bodenman really helped me prepare for my summer internship. I was able to take important skills that I had learned in each course and apply them to obtain my internship position and to also continue doing well throughout my time with the York Fair and Expo Center. I highly recommend that other students take advantage of as many internship opportunities that they can while they are at Bloomsburg so that they are able to gain relevant work experience and a real sense of what professional life will be like after graduation. I hope that I can take everything that I have learned at my internship over the last couple months and use my abilities to be a key asset in the success of a company after I graduate from Bloomsburg University in May 2020!

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Featured Student

Angela DiPasquale

Hello, my name is Angela DiPasquale and I am a senior organizational communication studies major with an emergent media minor. This past summer I had the opportunity to intern in New York City at an event planning production company called Eventique. Since the end of May, I have taken the 8:40 am bus to NYC learning the ropes of my future career! During my internship experience, not only did I validate that I am headed in the right direction, I learned valuable lessons about how to be a great event planner. Eventique was the perfect company for me to work with! Being an athlete I value working as a team and working towards one common goal and that’s exactly how the office ran. Everyone supported each other and worked on events together. Also, being the only intern I was given a lot of responsibility and duties each day. I got to research venues and entertainment options for clients and create decks for them and was often included in the conference calls with them. I wasn’t just sitting to listen, the team often valued my opinion and let me take the lead on certain aspects of the event. Even though I enjoyed learning the office component of being an event planner my favorite part of my internship was being on-site helping set up events. Unfortunately, they didn’t have too many events this summer but I did get to set up a Vegas themed boat party for a company anniversary and spent 24 hours straight working at a toy expo. Being onsite taught me how to talk to clients and quickly accommodate the client’s needs when things would go wrong or they had a last-minute request. I am sad to leave as I felt like I bonded and became part of the team. I am very thankful that they have asked me to come back and work an event with them in Miami in November and I am even more excited to take the valuable lessons I’ve learned in the past 3 months and bring it to life in a year when I land my first event planning job! I couldn’t have achieved such an amazing internship without all that Bloomsburg University has offered me in the past 3 years. The most valuable classes that strongly helped me be successful this summer where Communication for Business Professionals, Small Group communications and Leadership and Teambuilding. All of these classes provided me with the various of skills and lessons needed to work in an office along with other employees. These classes also helped me to be comfortable with asking for help and providing my opinion which is one of the best things an intern can do to be great!

Department News:
February 2018

Honors and Achievements

The National Communication Association Student Club (NCASC) was selected as the 2018 Bloomsburg University Student Organization of the Year for their outstanding work in the areas of leadership, programming, and service. The club is Co-Advised by Dr. Shavonne Shorter and Dr. Paula Hopeck.

Dr. Shavonne Shorter was elected as the Central Regional Director of the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education at the annual conference in Harrisburg.

Dr. Shavonne Shorter received the Central Region Award for selfless devotion and outstanding service to the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education at the annual conference in Harrisburg.

Publications
Long, Z., Buzzanell, P., & Kuang, K. (2018). Chinese Post80s generational resilience: Implications of Chengyu as guides for constituting harmonious careers. International Journal of Business Communication. doi: 10.1177/2329488417747598

Workshops

Dr.s Erin Brummett and Kai Kuang co-presented a TALE Seminar on February 22nd entitled, How to Effectively Develop Inclusive Classroom Environments: Strategies from Evidence-Based Teaching. This session tailored strategies learned from their attendance at the 2017 Lilly Conference to faculty at BU to explore how faculty can facilitate inclusive classroom environments for themselves and their students. A specific focus was given to Culturally Responsive Teaching strategies faculty can use to assist their students in improving their interpersonal and intercultural interactions on the BU campus.

Scholarly Activities

Drs. Eric Miller and Kara Shultz traveled to Dayton, Ohio from February 19-21 to complete the first of four training sessions at the Kettering Foundation. Committed to improving the quality of public discourse and deliberation, Kettering hosts a series of research exchanges every year. These attract participants from universities, non-profits, local governments, and other institutions to study and practice the art of productive discussion. In time, Drs. Miller and Shultz hope to use this training to develop public deliberation projects both within the Department of Communication Studies and the Bloomsburg community.

Dr. Eric Miller published a pair of interviews. His conversation with political scientist Andrew R. Lewis appeared at Religion Dispatches on February 9, and his conversation with historian Alec Ryrie appeared at Religion & Politics on February 20.

Dr. Shavonne Shorter presented at the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education conference in Harrisburg on the Frederick Douglass Institute Collaborative of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

The Husky Student Leadership Summit (HSLS)

The Husky Student Leadership Summit (HSLS) took place on Saturday February 24, 2018 at Kehr Union, and included participation from Communication Studies faculty and students. Drs. Kai Kuang and Elizabeth Petre served on the HSLS planning committee, registered attendees at the event, and promoted the HSLS to the campus community. Communication Studies majors Courtney Enderline, Jolene Drum, Nicole Donlick, and Jennifer Galer presented their session entitled "Water Cooler Talk and Locker Room Talk: An Ally's Guide to Getting into MINT Condition" at the event. This presentation was developed in Dr. Petre's Leadership and Team Building class during the Fall 2017 semester, and featured interactive activities to help students learn how to recognize and respond to problematic and seemingly mundane talk. The HSLS ended with a closing networking event led by Dr. Petre that was supported by the Bloomsburg University Husky PAWS (Peer Awareness with Students).