Students passing by the library could not ignore the music blasting from WSYC’s speakers. Four campus media groups gathered on the quad and outside the library April 8 to celebrate the annual Communication/Journalism Day.

Outside the library, the SUTV table offered a look inside the live truck and a Vine scavenger hunt.
The Slate and the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) claimed the quad with their own Communication/Journalism activities. PRSSA had balloons with positive statements written in them taped to their table. Participants popped the balloons and then replaced the messages with other encouraging words.

The Slate staff offered a Twitter challenge to see who could tweet news leads the fastest. Aspiring designers competed in an Adobe InDesign design challenge where they laid out newspaper pages.
Prizes for the challenges included T-shirts, The Slate cups and tote bags.

At the event, communication/journalism students received white flags from PRSSA to write out their dream jobs. Some of the flags staked in the ground said, “I want to be an ESPN cameraman,” “a marketing researcher,” “a nonprofit publicist” or “an editor.”

“C/J Day,” as many students call it, has been going on at Shippensburg University for more than 20 years. PRSSA organizes Communication/Journalism Day every year, bringing out a variety of students while honoring campus media.

Laura Kreiser, a freshman communication/journalism major, is in training to be the next arts and entertainment editor of The Slate for 2014-2015.

“It [campus media] gives us a lot more opportunity to build our portfolios and build our experience in general,” Kreiser said.

Kreiser joined The Slate as a staff writer as soon as she stepped on the SU campus. The communication/journalism department encourages its students to join campus media groups early in college so students can gain experience working in the field.

Lance Kopp, the news director at SUTV, is a senior who is graduating from the communication/journalism major. Like many hard-working students, Kopp sees the advantage campus media gives him.

“SUTV really helped me because some of this stuff you can’t learn in books,” Kopp said.
After the campus media groups packed up their tables, communication/journalism students went to the Tuscarora Room of Reisner Hall for an awards ceremony.

Joseph Borrell, department chair, introduced alumnae Kendra Nichols and Jessica Sharps. Nichols and Sharps each received Alumni of the Year awards.

Nichols is a correspondent for ABC27 and a 1999 graduate of SU. Sharps is the director of publications at Fairmont State University, W. Va. and graduated from SU in 2005.

After the alumnae shared their experiences, vice president of information and technology services, Rick Ruth, spoke about his involvement in the communication/journalism program.

The ceremony offered awards to individuals in the major and recognized leaders of student media groups. The top 30 communication/journalism seniors also received recognition for their achievements.

Among the awards was the Evans Service Award, named in honor of professor Margaret Evans who passed away in January.

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