By MELANIE RODRIGUEZ
Staff Writer
“It’s really sort of a collaboration between advertising, marketing and Public Relations. Communications just sort of encompasses and wraps everything up into one nice package,” said former student Rachel Meyers, “You can write, you can make films, you can edit, you can do pretty much do anything you really want to.”
The communications program offers classes like Audio Production, Journalism/News Writing I and II, Introduction to Public Relations, Video and Media Technology I and II, and Writing for TV/ Radio and New Media. Classes in the program will help polish skills in writing, editing, speaking, filming and enhance your creative thought process.
In 2011, Renee Post was hired to teach the communications classes at Cumberland County College. Since her arrival at the college, enrollment in the program has increased and is now ranked number 8 in the top 10 majors with highest graduating students at CCC. Post created a new curriculum that allows students to graduate with more than one degree because there are few classes that separate the majors.
Most communications students take advantage of the ability to duel major and graduate with two degrees. Students are able to graduate with degrees in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, and Television and Digital Media Production or an Academic Certificate in Entertainment Technology.
Meyers stated, “It’s a broad field so there is a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things.” A degree in communications can open doors in business, advertising, public relations, journalism, theatre/performing arts, health care, social and human services and even law and politics. Post offers her students hands-on experience, not just textbook work. For instance, the spring 2014 semester Video and Digital Media Technology II class wrote, filmed and produced an original sitcom. Complete with writers, directors, producers and actors, everyone in the class got to participate and fill a role that interested them. “It was just fun all around. I was with a bunch of people that I had not met prior to this class, but we all meshed pretty well together and had very little butting heads, very little disagreements…it was a lot of fun,” said Brandon Bischer, the director of the sitcom.
Along with the sitcom, Media Club, Intro to Public Relations and Television and Digital Media Technology II helped put together the first annual CCC Poetry Slam. Don’a Smith, former president of the Media Club, defined the poetry slam, “The Poetry Slam is inspired by L’Esprit writers who wanted to showcase their original works of poetry. The Poetry Slam is a 45-minute show with different writers performing their own works and other writers works who didn’t want to perform or couldn’t be there to perform.”
So why take Communications at Cumberland County College? You get experience and participate in events that bring the community and campus closer together. Communications graduate Kevin Read shared, “We went through grade school and high school learning Math, Social Studies, English, Science and you know, this is something different. We have never had television production classes before. It’s hands-on and it’s not all lectures. It’s really informative and creative.”
A degree in communications does not restrict you to one certain field of work. Along with giving you a bright and broad future, enrolling in the Communications program will create an unforgettable learning experience at Cumberland County College.
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