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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:
March 2014

 

Publication

‪Miller, E. C. (2014). Jimmy Carter, the politics of family, and the rise of the religious right, by J. Brooks Flippen. (Book Review). Rhetoric and Public Affairs 17(1), 193-195.

Miller, E. C. (2014). Spiritual modalities: Prayer as rhetoric and performance, by William FitzGerald. (Book Review). Quarterly Journal of Speech 100(1), 126-129.

 

Presentation

Dr. David Heineman gave a talk entitled, "Thinking About Video Games: Notes from a Researcher" on March 26 at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Heineman presented insights about the contemporary cultural significance of video games derived from more than seventy-five interviews with leading game designers and artists, game industry luminaries, gaming historians, game studies scholars, and others who have worked in and around the video game industry. His lecture proposed a path forward for research on video games that invites a broader range of academic disciplines to consider the medium and offered suggestions for how that research might find audiences who are best able to respond to its findings and analysis. 

Workshops

Professor Ruth Beerman and Professor Phil Rippke co-facilitated a workshop entitled, "Public Speaking, Engaging Others, and Nonverbal Communication" for the Center for Leadership and Engagement certificate program. The workshop centered around a rhetorical understanding of leadership; the idea being that everyone can learn how to become a better public speaker and leader by focusing on ideas of audience and delivery.

Professor Ruth Beerman and Professor Phil Rippke co-facilitated a workshop entitled, "Digital Citizenship and Ethics" for the Center for Leadership and Engagement certificate program. This workshop took up the question of what does it mean to be a citizen in a digital era and environment, particularly focusing on social media. This workshop utilized two case studies: (1) Samantha Goudie, better known as “Vodka Samm,” the University of Iowa student who drunk tweeted while in jail and (2) Twitter and university responses to the decision of Chancellor Phyllis Wise, from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champagne, to hold classes on January 27, 2014.

Dr. Kathryn Hobson presented two workshops on Intercultural Communication and Inclusion for Leadership and Engagement Certification program and for the Husky Student Leadership Conference. In both of these workshops Dr. Hobson explored the concept of social privilege and how it is communicated interpersonally, culturally, and institutionally, in hopes of creating more meaningful dialogues around differences.

 

Achievement

Dr. Joe Hassert successfully defended his dissertation entitled, “The Collaborative Performance of Open Mic Poetry and the Art of Making Do” on March 20th, 2014.

 

Recognition

Dr. Kathryn Hobson was nominated as an Outstanding Woman at Bloomsburg University. She was invited to the Women’s History Month Reception, recognized, and honored for hard work and achievement.

Dr. Dale Bertelsen, Dr. Jihyun Kim, Dr. Mary Nagy, Dr. Tim Rumbough, Prof. Christi Saindon and Dr. Kelly Tenzek were recognized as the most positively influential professors by Husky Scholar-Athletes, and invited to a special luncheon. The following includes comments from scholar-athletics.

• Dr. Bertelsen: “He truly cares about teaching his students. His classes are challenging, but very entertaining. I always enjoy going to his classes because there is never a dull moment” (by M. Borski).

• Dr. Kim: “Dr. Kim was my Research Methods professor for the fall 2013 semester. Dr. Kim was an excellent professor for many reasons. She is a very good professor and taught me a lot of information that I will use for the rest of my career. Dr. Kim really enjoyed her class and what she was teaching, which made learning much more enjoyable. Dr. Kim was always there for her students, including me. Dr. Kim always made sure that her students understood the material and was always there for students at her office hours for extra help. I really enjoyed her class and I hope to have her again as my professor in the near future” (by. M. Sherriff).

• Dr. Nagy: “Not only was Professor Nagy the professor in a course I previously attended, she is also my student advisor. If I had to describe Professor Nagy’s teaching style in a few words they would consist of passionate, creative, and intriguing. It was a pleasure to have been in her course and she has been a crucial part of my academic success thus far through her advising” (by A. Harris).

• Dr. Rumbough: “As a professor and someone I rely on for help with scheduling, Dr. Rumbough has been a huge influence on me during the past two semesters. I have had Dr. Rumbough for Public Speaking and Communication Theory and enjoyed taking both of these classes as I progress through my major. Even though Dr. Rumbough is a Communication Studies professor, he also helps out our team when we have scheduling issues or need help talking to professors about missing class. Dr. Rumbough has always helped me when I needed help getting a class moved to a different time or helping me as to what courses I should be taking. I believe that Dr. Rumbough has been a great influence on my academics and me in the past two semesters” (by C. Flynn).

• Prof. Saindon: “Professor Saindon was one of the few professors that I really got to know during the fall semester. She is a genuinely good person and always expressed concern for our well-being. She was continuously supportive and offered help to us whenever we needed it” (by C. Hollan).

• Dr. Tenzek: “Dr. Tenzek has been my professor for multiple classes and has had a huge positive impact thus far in my academic career. Not only has she expanded my knowledge inside the classroom she has prepared me for the real world in every aspect ranging from time management to leadership skills. Her consistency on actively trying to get her students to work to the best of their ability has inspired me to be the best person I can be under any type of circumstance.

Student achievement

Albra R. Wheeler (undergraduate student) recently received Emerging Scholar Award at the CROW (Committee on Research on Women and Gender) Conference at the University of Akron for her paper entitled, “The Wonderbra: Oppression vs. Liberation in Patriarchal Society.”