Sixth Communication Day Highlights Student Work

Networking reception of the sixth annual Communication Day

(photo by Makenna Bentley)

By Makenna Bentley

At the sixth annual Communication Day on Friday, current Communication majors were put into the spotlight together with the alumni.

This year’s Communication Day, an event hosted by the Department of Communication celebrating the Communication major by inviting its alumni back to Trinity, added a new program: student work showcase.

On the fourth floor of the Richardson Communications Center, home to the department, about 30 projects done by Communication majors, ranging from short narrative films, video games, podcast, sitcom, documentaries, to multimedia journalism, were on display in the computer labs.

The showcase took place at the same time and on the same floor as the networking reception for students, faculty, alumni, and guests from the industry.

“The purpose of the showcase was for students to show off their work to alumni,” said Communications Department Chair Jennifer Henderson. “If they were talking about potential careers, they could turn and show them a video project they completed, or maybe even a video game.”

Senior Communication major Erin Crooks was one of the students whose work was on display: her Capstone project, “The Facts Aren’t Facts?”, a documentary. “It’s an honor for them to ask me to be a representative for the Communication Department,” she said.

Madison Nix, junior political science major, went to the student showcase to support her friends. “They obviously put a lot of hard work into it,” Nix said. “So it was cool to see their work come together in the end.”

Prior to the showcase and reception, two alumni panels were held, featuring a dozen of Communication Department graduates from 1984 all the way to 2017.

One panel focused on career diversity with a central theme of adaptability within the workplace. On this panel were Daren Brabham, ’04, who now works as a senior director for Gartner in Los Angeles, Nathan Cone, ’95, vice president of cultural and community engagement at Texas Public Radio here in San Antonio, and Claire Poole, ’84, senior writer for the Texas Lawbook in Houston, and many more.

Brabham told a room full of students, faculty and alumni, “stay open to anything that can lead to other opportunities that you may have never thought about.” All panelists agreed that most of their success within their fields stemmed from the fact that they are able to adapt and pivot into the places where they were needed.

Cone, who was called the “Swiss Army Knife of Texas Public Radio” by a colleague, had this advice, “I started looking for skills to develop myself that also help to better the organization.”

Paige Johnson, a senior double major in communication and political science, attended her first Comm Day this year. She missed the past Comm Days due to conflicts with her swimming competitions. She was very excited to finally experience this event in her last semester at Trinity.

“I am really looking forward to networking with alumni. I think it’s cool that students are able to hear the alumni's career paths and learn how it can apply to their own,” Johnson said.

Comm Day is a day full of events including a keynote speech luncheon, multiple alumni panels, and a networking reception. “Comm Day was originally a suggestion from students. It serves as a bridge between Trinity life and the real world experiences our alumni have encountered,” said Henderson.

As for whether new programs such as the student work showcase will be added to future Comm Days, Henderson said, “We have no idea how it will evolve. Most of it is based off student suggestions, just like the way it was created.”