This past year, College of Communication Arts and Sciences students have had many amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities outside the classroom that have enhanced their overall college experience.
Students traveled to China for The One Club’s Youth Creative Festival, went behind the scenes with ESPN’s College GameDay, networked with top sports media professionals at the Spartan Sports Journalism Classic, worked on a feature-length film and documentaries all around the world, and presented at conferences and competitions. These are just a few of the activities ComArtSci students were involved with outside of class and away from their studies.
Just a few weeks ago, 50 ComArtSci students attended a private dinner with former President Bill Clinton where he was presented with the Spartan Statesmanship Award for Distinguished Public Service by former Michigan Governor James Blanchard. That same day, another 50 students met with top executives from the Detroit Red Wings before attending a Red Wings game. One day, two separate events – both demonstrating the quality of opportunities unique to our students.
At the core of both these opportunities and with so many of the experiences available to our students are ComArtSci faculty who go above and beyond to make things happen for their students. They reach out to former colleagues, students, alumni and industry leaders to put students in front of professionals and future employers. In and outside the classroom, faculty continually push themselves to add to their students’ college careers.
Dinner with President Clinton
For the private dinner with President Clinton, held at the at the
Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. Bob Kolt, Instructor in the Department of Advertising + Public Relations and President and CEO of Kolt Communications, used his corporate sponsorship of the event and relationship with event coordinators to give 50 students from his public relations classes the opportunity to attend.
“I am very thankful for the opportunity and honored to be able to see former President Bill Clinton speak,” said Brianna Wissink, senior Advertising major. “It was a very interesting and a very humbling experience.”
The same sentiment was felt by many of the other students attending.
“Very few people will have the opportunity to hear someone of his caliber speak at an event like this,” said Victoria Bowles, senior Journalism student. “I am thankful that Professor Kolt and others at Michigan State are passionate about extending these opportunities to students.”
Networking with Red Wings Executives
On the same night, another group of ComArtSci students traveled to Detroit to attend a networking event and panel discussion with Detroit Red Wings executives and sports media professionals.
This was made possible by L.A. Dickerson, Specialist in the School of Journalism, who reached out to students as soon as she heard about the opportunity and even drove to Joe Louis Area to buy tickets to the game that followed the panel discussion.
"L.A. is an incredible professor who cares about getting her students to the next level," said Maya Sanches, senior Journalism major. "She wants us to know what it’s like to be in the sports journalism field, and she wants us to have connections to get to where we want to be. With L.A., it's not only about classroom work, it's about preparing us for the real world."
Although Dickerson wasn’t involved in organizing the panel, the Detroit Red Wings asked her to contact Craig Custance, a former student of hers who now covers the NHL for ESPN The Magazine, to ask him to be part of the panel.
Custance said he joined the panel in part because he wanted to give back to Dickerson who helped him early in her career.
“L.A. is simply the best, mostly because it was so clear that she cared about all of us,” Custance said. “Because of all the help I've received along the way from Michigan State connections, I would never turn down an opportunity to pass it along.”
Custance continued to say that what Dickerson does goes beyond the classroom, and if she could make an introduction to help further her students’ careers, she would do it.
"She's responsible for helping me land my first big internship," Custance said. "Nobody was more influential to the success in my career early on than L.A."
And for Sanches, she attended the panel because she heard Custance would be there.
"I met him at the Spartan Sports Journalism Classic earlier in the year and thought it would be a great opportunity to connect with him again," Sanches said.
As 2015 comes to an end, we look forward to seeing the many opportunities ComArtSci students will experience in the New Year.
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