Student Accomplishments
The department’s Graduate Program is governed by the
principle that students should be permitted to study and
conduct research in areas of their primary interests.
While enabling students to pursue their interests, the department
also has the responsibility to ensure that students acquire
a coherent perspective within the field of Communication
Studies.
The Graduate Committee administers the Graduate Council,
handles admission to the graduate program, makes recommendation
for graduate assistants, recommends courses to the Curriculum
Committee, and coordinates prospectus meetings. Members of
the committee are elected for two-year terms, and the Committee
elects one member to serve a two-year term as Graduate Coordinator.
Communication Studies graduate students have been active attendees and participants in national and regional Communication conferences. For example, in 2002, 11 graduate students attended, and six presented papers, at the NCA Convention in New Orleans, and in 2003 four graduate students attended the NCA Convention in Miami. In 2003 nine attended the WSCA convention in Salt Lake City, and in 2004 nine attended, and three presented papers at, the WSCA convention in Albuquerque.
In the past five year, four graduate students from the Communication Studies Department have received doctoral forgivable loans and started or completed doctoral studies at Michigan State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Utah, and the University of California at Davis, and two students have received pre-doctoral fellows to visit prospective doctoral programs.
| National Communication Association 2002 |
Western States Communication Association 2003 |
National Communication Association 2003 |
Western States Communication Association 2004 |
| Terry Filipowicz Scott Kirchner* Jorge Luna* Todd Plain* Ernie Boudro Juliane Mora* Aleta Carpenter* Lynette Pogue Tony Beal Jillian Tullis Toby Lutz* |
Sharon Peterson Sheryl Hurner James Hedges Todd Plain Juliane Mora Tammy Jones Jillian Tullis Janeth Serrano Heather Smith |
Juliane Mora Janeth Serrano Heather Smith Terry Filipowicz |
Juliane Mora Jillian Owns Terry Filipowicz Aleta Carpenter Becky LaVally Barbara Bush* Sasndra Wheeler* Liz Harder Tammy Jones Janeth Serrano Toni Beal Heather Smith* Jessica Gordley** Blaine Davis** |
Student Professional Development
“What I enjoy most about teaching is watching
students grow as they learn the fundamentals of journalism — and
once they’re working in the profession, to hear back
from them about the value of what they learned from me. That’s
the best feeling in the world.”
–
Mark D. Ludwig, Co-founder of the Sacramento Regional High
School Journalism
Conference and Competition
Epsilon Phi
The department houses the Epsilon Phi National Communication
Honor Society. The department provides support with mailing
meeting notices, reserving meeting rooms and maintaining
the member data base. The chapter is developing a department
mentoring program; an alumni group; a Web site with an
electronic newsletter; and a calendar of activities to
support the chapter and the department. Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater
founded the chapter and serves as faculty advisor.
Debate Team
The Debate Team at CSU-Sacramento is funded by the university's
Instructionally Related Activities Fund and is designed to
provide students with training in critical thinking, research
and presentational skills through competition in intercollegiate
debate. The team is open to all CSUS students regardless
of prior experience.
The Debate Team competes in the Cross Examination Debate
Association and is associated with the Northern California
Forensics Association. The Debate Team is committed to and
has a long history of educational and competitive excellence
and strives to provide students with a challenging educational
experience. The team competes in tournaments throughout Northern
California, the Pacific Northwest, and, when appropriate,
across the country. Students on the team are expected to
maintain a respectable grade point average and make steady
progress toward graduation.
The team is proud to have had two All American Debate Team
and three Academic All American Debate Team awards presented
to our students in the past three years. Since 1987, the
team has had students advance to the elimination rounds at
the CEDA National Championships, including teams in the Quarter
finals in 1988 and 1989. In 1993, a CSUS team ranked fourth
of 225 competing teams after the eight preliminary rounds
at the National Tournament.
Though the team strives for competitive excellence, it seeks
to challenge each student to make the most of his or her
skills through hard work and a commitment to highly ethical
standards of argumentation.
State Hornet
The State Hornet, a weekly newspaper and news Web site, provides
Sac State students the opportunity to practice what they've
learned in the classroom. The print newspaper comes out on
Wednesdays while class is in session, and the Web site --
at www.statehornet.com -- is updated as news events require.
Students run the State Hornet, led by an editor-in-chief
selected each year by the campus publications board. The
publications provide experience in reporting, writing, editing,
page design, Web design, advertising sales and design, and
multimedia production. The staff generally comes from the
journalism program, but majors from other departments, including
photography and graphic design, frequently work on staff.
The newspaper and Web site, which have a history of winning
awards, were honored in 2004 with a number of awards from
the California College Media Association.
A faculty advisor works with the students, who earn academic
credit for the work on the newspaper. In First Amendment
tradition, the advisor does not review the work before publication,
but instead provides guidance and instruction through critiques
and continuing interaction with the students. State Hornet
alumni have moved on to successful careers in journalism,
including jobs at the Sacramento Bee and other daily newspapers,
and at the Associated Press.
Professional Development
The department provides a variety of professional development
opportunities. There are student organizations focused on
the areas of public relations and organizational communication
that schedule guest speakers—working professionals—at
a variety of their meetings. Many instructors in a variety
of areas invite relevant professionals to be guest speakers
in their classes. Undergraduate students are socialized into
the discipline through placement as instructional assistants.
Graduate students are socialized through a large and successful
Graduate Assistantship/Teaching Associates program. Finally,
the Department has a very large internship and cooperative
education program. This program serves an average of 120
students per semester during the academic year and up to
40 students during the summer term. Most of these students
are placed in one of the 300+ internships that are regularly
available. In addition a number of students each semester
create their own internships with guidance from the Internship
Coordinator.
A wide variety of internship and cooperative education placements
are available to communication studies students. Opportunities
exist at television and radio stations, public relations
and advertising firms, in a variety of state and local government
agencies, in a wide variety of nonprofit organizations and
in a number of local businesses. We try to place interns
according to their concentration or area of emphasis. We
have a number of media students interning at broadcast stations
and production houses, public relations interns at PR firms
or in public information capacities at government agencies,
organizational communication interns doing organizational
training and event planning, interpersonal communication
interns working in mediation and in non-profit settings and
multimedia interns in a variety of organization settings
that need help with web design and other multimedia needs.
While relatively few interns are able to convert their internships
into regular employment, there are some each semester that
succeed in doing so. A greater number find regular employment
through connections that they make in their internships.
Our graduates have been quite successful in finding employment
relevant to their majors. We have alumni at a large number
of government agencies, at many local PR firms, at radio
and television stations, at local newspapers, at nonprofits
and at a variety of other organizations. Our efforts to connect
students to professional opportunities have been quite successful.
Beyond our excellent internship program and referrals from
specific faculty the Communication Studies Department, however,
has made little progress in assisting students with career
placement. Our lack of success in this area is reflected
in the results from the 2004 senior survey. CSUS students
are very “instrumental” in their views toward
their education. The fact that the majority of our students
are first-generation college students attests to the fact
that most of our majors view their degree as an essential
stepping stone to career fulfillment. The department might
want to consider mechanisms to assist students in shaping
their education to career preparation and in beginning the
first few steps toward that career.
