Category Archives: Beyond the Classroom

COM Career Fair: Networking for Grads and Undergrads

By Ali Parisi
MS Public Relations ’16
BU College of Communication

Whenever I ask people for advice on job searching, all I hear is: network.  How am I supposed to have time to network while in grad school? How can I go to employers and just strike up a conversation about me and what I want to do with my life?

Actually, I can, and I did!  COM’s Career Fair (Feb 24 and 25) gave me that exact opportunity.  Over 20 employers from all three communication disciplines came to BU specifically to chat with more than 340 COM students about potential employment opportunities.  Among the attendees were Arnold Worldwide, Big Block Productions, Communispace, Gupta Media, Ketchum PR, SHIFT Communications, NESN and WCVB-TV-ABC.

The career fair was held over two days, with representatives from each company set up at tables.  Students could talk to any company that was there, giving them the chance to both learn more about the companies and share about themselves.

“We try to get a mix so that all three departments are covered,” says Kelly Forde, Assistant Director of COM Career Services.  “We’re looking for employers that have both internship and full time opportunities.”

Career Fair

Alexis Feinberg, a graduate PR student, was particularly excited to meet with Ketchum PR regarding a potential summer internship.  “I wanted to find out more about the program, if they indeed had an internship program, and what it means for a graduate-level student,” she said.  More specifically, Feinberg was interested in Ketchum’s subsidiary, Harrison &Shriftman – a fashion PR firm and showroom based in Miami.  “Serena, the Talent Acquisition Manager for Ketchum was more than happy to answer my questions and was open to connecting my information with Harrison &Shriftman.”

Forde describes making connections as just one part of the overall goal at the career fair.  “Obviously jobs or internships are really the end goals,” said Forde. “It’s also to practice: to get more comfortable talking to employers, to get more comfortable talking about themselves and selling themselves, and just to kind of up their professionalism.”

COM Career Services also opened up more resume hours and sent out lists of the companies weeks in advance to give students time to prepare.  Ultimately, Forde explains that it is up to the students to come prepared.  “Showing that you do your research sometimes is the best way to set yourself apart,” she said.

Whether it’s finding a job, internship, or just introducing yourself to employers, the career fair is a great way to get your name out there and practice.  I have to admit, I was a little intimidated since I had never been to one before, but I’m so glad I went.  According to Forde,“Every connection is a good connection.” So why not start connecting?  Lord knows I’m going to need a job soon!

The Redstone Film Festival 2015

By Keiko Talley
MS Journalism '16
BU College of Communication

The Redstones Film Festival is held each spring semester by the Film and Television Department at COM. The festival showcases works submitted by both graduate and undergraduate students. Films are awarded based on several categories: best film, best cinematography, best screenplay, best editing, best sound design, Fleder/Rosenberg best short screenplay; the festival is basically like the Oscars of Boston University.

This year’s 1st place winner and the winner of Best Screenplay, was Bryan Sih (COM’14.)  His film Winter/Spring, was about a Spanish-speaking couple working on a farm.

What inspired you for this film?

Lots of things. I started thinking of parenthood after reading Sherwood Anderson’s The Untold Lie. I began questioning the bringing of a child into the world when adults are just as confused as a child. Immigrants always inspire me with their bravery and often-tragic necessity to seek an alien world, and so I included that in the film. Then there are the actors themselves, since the film relies on improvisation, they are responsible for a lot. Unfortunately, I wrote the whole script for the spring. When we scouted the farm, it was covered in three feet of snow that refused to melt so I rewrote the film on the spot.

How long and what type of preparation did this film take?

I started preparing the script in December and we were still writing into April. I like to lock myself into a room, get a large piece of paper and write the scenes in blurbs all over the page. It usually lasts a few days and I am constantly rewriting it. I am a terrible writer, so the real preparation begins with the actors. I also have the actors work beforehand. For Winter/Spring, they drove up to the farm together without the crew and when they arrived on set, had formed their own private language. It made them come across as a self-enclosed unit.

RedstoneFirst place winner Bryan Sih (COM’14) flanked by his actors, Herlin Navarro and David Quiroz

What is the message that you wanted to portray in this film?

It was more a question: what does it mean to be ready for parenthood? It is a film about being on the cusp of great life change and not fully being ready, but learning how to work through this struggle together, with tenderness, forgiveness and communication.

You don’t speak Spanish, but your film is in Spanish with English subtitles, why is that?

I grew up in a diverse town with many immigrant families, they’re part of my world. The couple in this film is isolated somewhere in North America, and they’ve retained their spoken language. The film focuses primarily on their relationship actually, not ethnicity. Also, directing in a language you don’t speak makes observing the things that matter all the more vivid.

What does the future entail for you now that you’ve won the Redstone?

The Redstones gave me a camera to shoot more films with, so I hope to be more productive. I’ve learned so much from my experience with Winter/Spring and can’t wait to dive into the next project.

Spring ’15; all that’s new this semester

By Michelle Marino
MS Journalism '15
BU College of Communication

The Fall 2014 semester seems like another time and place, a lifetime ago. I had just transferred over from PR and was starting an entirely new course load and journey into journalism. I was pretty overwhelmed by the transition and trying to take on everything at a quicker pace than other first semester journalism students, since I knew I would only have a year to accomplish everything they would be doing in a year and a half. Last semester I wrote for this blog, the features department at The Daily Free Press, a Boston-based online food magazine called Simmer, and freelanced for BU's online magazine The Quad.

Besides that, I was searching for an internship for the spring; I knew that would be critical to me entering the workforce come graduation in May '15. I fortuitously ended up with an internship with Boston magazine this semester, and am already enjoying it. Since my preferred topic and medium is lifestyle magazine writing, I couldn't be happier. I am doing a lot of fact-checking, which allows me to dig deep into how sources were gathered and the information given. Although it can be painstaking, I'm learning a lot about the newsgathering process and topics I knew nothing about.

On Feb. 24, my first article will be published in Boston HOME. It is a piece on an artist and her gouache paintings. If you know what that means, I salute you. I didn't before I wrote the article. I'm hoping I will get to write many more over the course of the semester. I'm also an editor of the Spotlight section of The Daily Free Press. Editing has really given me the opportunity to keep on top of AP style as well as keep up with the news cycle. Having to pitch several stories every week keeps me constantly on the lookout for what's coming up on the horizon and what is newsworthy.

This semester is going to be a whirlwind, especially once the thesis gets off the ground. I think the hardest part about starting it will be deciding on a topic. I'm hoping some of my professors will be able to help, and I'll aim to do a print series (with some multimedia) on some aspect of agriculture or the fishing industry. The one thing I've learned from all the craziness is the more involved you are with everything around you, the more you are able to connect the dots. Whether you're interviewing a professor, chef, biologist, business owner, or Miss USA, you can learn from each one something that will surprisingly apply to something else you are doing.

IMG_2908Michelle Marino at her desk at the Boston magazine office

This is especially true when it comes to networking. I went to a COM networking event last semester and met the Food Editor of Boston magazine. At my internship, I am sitting right behind her and get insight into what she's working on every day. Here's to a great Spring 2015 semester!

Remembering David Carr, COM Professor and NY Times columnist

By Nikita Sampath
MS Broadcast Journalism '16
BU College of Communication 

As the journalism community grieved the loss of David Carr last evening, students at COM had to put emotions aside and do what they are being trained to do in the face of such a happening; report.

The recent couple weeks have been unfortunate for the world of journalism; the killing of two Japanese journalists by ISIS, Jon Stewart stepping down from the daily show, Bob Simon of CBS's 60 Minutes passing away and last evening, David Carr.To us at COM, he was not just another journalist. He was one of our professors, one of us.

Within minutes of hearing the news about his death though, students at the Boston University News Service (BUNS) and The Daily Free Press sprung in to action.

"Bulletin: There's chatter on Twitter that David Carr has died. We need to confirm or debunk this. If it's true, we need to report. If it's not true we need to report how this happened." posted Prof. Michelle Johnson on the Facebook page for BUNS contributors.

Within an hour of her posting, there were over a 100 responses in the comments section. Students had reached out to current professors, the Dean, students taking his class this semester and others who had taken it previously. The obituary that came out from this teamwork can be found on the BUNS website.

Jamie Bologna, a recent COM grad, who had taken Carr's class last semester,tweeted about the loss.

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Jamie Bologna's tweets from the night of 12th Feb, '15

Prim Chuwiruch who took his course, Press Play, in the fall of 2014 said, "David Carr went beyond being just a professor. He was a mentor and a friend in times when he didn't need to be, but he did anyways."This is what the syllabus for his course Press Play looked like. I'm a second semester grad student at BU and I've not seen a syllabus from any other course look anything like this.

The Daily Free Press put together a page overnight dedicated to the late professor.  COM alumni Megan Turchi and Justine Hofherr who both took his class wrote this piece for Boston.com. More coverage on the life of Carr and his demise will be up on BU News Service over the next couple days.

Despite being sad for the loss COM has suffered, I’m honestly grateful for the experience of working in a newsroom with such great teams. These are essential lessons that we learn for our lives as journalists. And I’m glad I’m learning it here at COM.

 

(Featured image courtesy: BUNS)

Looking China: A chance to produce an all expense paid documentary in China

By Nikita Sampath
MS Broadcast Journalism '16
BU College of Communication 

Here is something to be excited about. Boston University, in association with Beijing Normal University (BNU), sponsors a small number of interested filmmakers to go on a two-week trip to China over the summer. The selected applicants get to spend this time making a documentary on a cultural topic. Each student from Boston University is paired up with a student from Beijing Normal University who acts as a fixer and helps bridge the language barrier. The pairs work together for the two-week duration, planning, shooting and editing their 5-10 minute documentaries. The final pieces are all screened at the end of the period.

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Professor Geoffrey Poister of the Film and TV department at BU’s College of Communication is in-charge of the students representing BU. He says that although the execution of this exercise seems close to impossible, it amazes him that the students not only end up finishing the project but also do a good job of it.

The students are put up in a nice dormitory and given a stipend for food and travel. They are given basic filmmaking equipment—Canon T3i, microphone and Libec tripod. Although students did have access to editing software at BNU, they had to spend considerable time figuring out how to change the system’s language from Chinese to English and therefore preferred carrying a personal laptop.

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Xavery Robin, one of the 15 students who went on the trip in 2014, shares her experience:

It was an amazing, frantic, sometimes challenging adventure. Time pressure was intense towards the end, but the breadth of experiences, and the care our Chinese partners took to ensure we had a good time and made it absolutely worthwhile! Filming in China is also something that one should experience. I found that people are very kind and patient with being filmed, although they can have a strong sense of privacy and it may take a little convincing at first. The food was phenomenal!

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My Chinese partner was Joyce (Chen Aonan is her Chinese name) and she was a real gem. She took care of all the navigating through the city, translating, finding things for me to eat, convincing my subject (a female cab driver) to let me film her (a process that took 40 minutes), translating all the dialogue, showing me around the campus and making sure I didn't get lost, and giving me input on which locations would be nice to film. My documentary wouldn't have happened without her!

Robin’s documentary can be viewed here. Jim Dandee, who also went to China this year thinks the program is “a worthwhile opportunity for growth as a person and filmmaker.” Here is a link to his movie "The Blossoming”. Here are two more films, made by Rebecca Dobyns and Joe Dwyer.

Interested students should keep an eye out next semester for the deadline to apply to the program.

* Photo credit: Sarah (Xavery Robin)