The National Communication Association Convention (NCA) was held Nov. 20 – Nov. 24 in Washington, D.C. Below are a few pictures of our professors presenting their research papers.
NCA 2013
Thanksgiving Break
Alright, we finally have a thanksgiving break!! But, before that, we need to share some news about SCOM for last two weeks.
Faculty Award
Dr. Corey Hickerson was named the recipient of the 2014-2015 JMU College of Arts and Letters Carl Harter Distinguished Teacher Award.
Congratulations!!
IABC
IABC recently elected their new officers for the 2013-2014 school year! Congratulations to the following: Read more Thanksgiving Break
Harrison Connect, Here we come!!
We created a poll for a new blog name and now our name is Harrison Connect. Thank you for all of you who voted.
Like our new name, we will do our best to connect people around SCOM by creating fun stories about them or about us.
Right before the homecoming weekend, we added a special story about one of beloved JMU Debate team members, Mark Waugh.
Mark’s family, Professor Mike Davis, and the University founded a memorial fund for Mark. Here is a link to donate.
Under my gift will support select “Other” and enter “Mark Waugh Memorial Fund”.
Speech Team
The JMU Speech Team returned from their largest tournament this semester with impressive accomplishments. The team finished 14 out of over 40 schools and over 400 competitors, including 16 of the Top Twenty teams from last year’s National Individual Events Tournament. The individual results are as follows:
Jessie Burr (JR, SMAD/ENG) Semi-finalist in Impromptu Speaking–Top 12 out of 126 Speakers
Zach Healy (SR, SMAD/SCOM) 4th Informative Speaking–out of 87 Speakers
Nathan Selove (FR, SCOM/THEA) Novice Prose Semi-Finalist–Top 12 out of 52 Speakers and Novice After Dinner Speaking CHAMPION
The team, coached by Lee Mayfield and Alyssa Reid, travels this weekend to Seton Hall University.
Teaching Assistant
We added a story of our very first Teaching Assistants for our first graduate program. Please read it here, if you missed it.
Alumni Award Nomination
The deadline to apply for the Alumni Award is February 15th, for all you amazing alumni you will not want to miss this deadline!
The award is given annually to an alum who manifests the following criteria:
a. Outstanding contributions to the discipline/profession
b. Outstanding service to the department, university, community, region, nation
c. SCOM major, minor, co-curricular and extracurricular programs alumni are eligible
You can nominate yourself, too!!
The award is presented at the year-end SCOM Celebration event in the Spring semester. More information on the award and the procedure/deadlines for submitting a nomination packet can be found by clicking on this link.
Now, it is already one month away from the end of the semester. Let’s finish this semester strong!!
If you have any events or activities of SCOM to share, please send information to Dr. Isaac Woo (woocw@jmu.edu) or Chelsea Legendre (legendcj@dukes.jmu.edu) or Tweet us @JMUSCOM.
The End of October
It has been quite the busy two weeks here in Harrison. Read on to see what has been going on. If you have anything else to add please comment below.
Speech Team
The JMU Speech Team continued their impressive competitive season this past weekend in Allentown, PA on the campus of Cedar Crest College. The team, including 4 first year competitors, finished in third place for the weekend against schools including; Cedar Crest College, Cornell University, Lafayette College, Liberty University, George Mason University, Saint Joseph’s University, Seton Hall University, West Chester University, and Wilkes University.
Individual results are as follows.
Day One
- Shelby Akins, SR SCOM, 5th Informative Speaking, 5th After Dinner Speaking
- Virginia Bonds, FR SCOM, 6th Program Oral Interpretation
- Jessie Bur, Soph SMAD, 6th Poetry Interpretation
- Abby Fiege, FR MATH, 4th After Dinner Speaking
- Katie Lese, SR SCOM, 4th Dramatic Interpretation, 2nd Communication Analysis
Day Two
- Shelby Akins, SR SCOM, 5th After Dinner Speaking
- Virginia Bonds, FR SCOM, 5th Program Oral Interpretation, 2nd Novice Prose Interpretation
- Jessie Bur, Soph SMAD, 1st Extemporaneous, 6th Impromptu Speaking
- Abby Fiege, FR MATH, 3rd After Dinner Speaking
- Katie Lese, SR SCOM, 2nd Dramatic Interpretation, 2nd Communication Analysis
- Nathan Selove, FR THEA, 1st Prose Interpretation.
The team, coached by Lee Mayfield and Alyssa Reid, will have a weekend off before facing their largest competition of the semester in Peoria, IL on the campus of Bradley University.
IABC Meeting
Last week on Thursday, October 17th IABC held another meeting before their elections. If you have any questions please contact Dr. Janell Bauer (bauerjc@jmu.edu) or Dr. Heather Carmack (carmachj@jmu.edu) for more information.
We are all very excited to see what our newest organization accomplishes in their first year!
PRSSA
On Thursday, Oct. 10, @JMUPRSSA accepted an annual grant awarded by the Blue Ridge PRSA chapter.
On Friday, Oct. 11, @JMUPRSSA visited 8 PR firms and organizations to learn more about best practices, industry trends and future opportunities. They took a bus up Friday morning with more than 30 members, toured different agencies, then wrapped the day up with an alumni networking event.This was the first agency visit of the semester and PRSSA is planning for more agency trips in the Spring.
SCOM professors were recognized
Dr. Corey Hickerson received a teaching and technology award and Dr. Brian Kaylor was nominated he State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s prestigious Outstanding Faculty Awards with seven other JMU professors.
Congratulations!!
“El Pintor” with Dr. Carlos Aleman
The Latin Ballet of Virginia performed “El Pintor” (The Painter) at Harrisonburg High School
this past Wednesday, October 23rd. The event was co-sponsored by Dr. Carlos Alemán of the JMU Professors in Residence.
Upcoming
Homecoming Week
Next week officially starts Homecoming Week here at JMU. Students are excited for the Bleed Purple day next Monday. While, we are excited to see our SCOM Alumni! Check out the Homecoming Week Twitter or Facebook for updates. Also, keep checking with JMU SCOM, we may have something exciting planned for our alumni!
Alumni Award Nomination
The deadline to apply for the Alumni Award is February 15th, for all you amazing alumni you will not want to miss this deadline!
The award is given annually to an alum who manifests the following criteria:
a. Outstanding contributions to the discipline/profession
b. Outstanding service to the department, university, community, region, nation
c. SCOM major, minor, co-curricular and extracurricular programs alumni are eligible
You can nominate yourself, too!!
The award is presented at the year-end SCOM Celebration event in the Spring semester. More information on the award and the procedure/deadlines for submitting a nomination packet can be found by clicking on this link.
Don’t forget, our poll for the new SCOM Blog name is still going on! Vote on your favorite or make a suggestion!
The Week in Review
Speech Team Update
The JMU Speech Team had their most productive weekend of competition to date this past weekend on the campus of George Mason University. Twelve teams representing 7 different states joined JMU at the Virginia is for Lovers tournament hosted by our team and the George Mason Speech team, including: Pacific University (Oregon), University of Florida, University of Akron (Ohio), Seton Hall University (New Jersey), Sarah Lawrence College (New York), and St. Joseph’s University (Pennsylvania). The JMU team finished in 2nd place and Zach Healy (Sr, SCOM/SMAD) was overall top speaker. The individual results are as follows:
Shelby Akins (Sr, SCOM) 2nd Communication Analysis (QUALLED), 5TH Informative Speaking, 6th Prose Interpretation
Jessie Bur (Jr, Eng/SMAD) 1st Impromptu Speaking, 1st Persuasive Speaking (QUALLED), 6th Poetry Interpretation, 5th TOP SPEAKER
Zach Healy (Sr, SCOM/SMAD) 1st Duo Interpretation, 2nd Informative Speaking (QUALLED), 2nd Poetry Interpretation (QUALLED), 1st Prose Interpretation (QUALLED), OVERALL TOP SPEAKER
Katie Lese (Sr, SCOM) 4th Dramatic Interpretation, 1st Duo Interpretation, 2nd Prose Interpretation (QUALLED)
Nathan Selove (Fr, THEA) 1st After Dinner Speaking (QUALLED)
Kendrick Smith (Soph, SPAN) 2nd Program Oral Interpretation (QUALLED)
In order to qualify an event for the National Individual Event Tournament (NIET) a student must compete in at least three tournament final rounds and their placings in the final round must equal a total of 8 or less. The JMU team now has 6 members qualified (the most we have ever had qualified this early in the season) for the NIET to be held in Tempe, AZ at Arizona State University in April.
The team, coached by Lee Mayfield and Alyssa Reid, travels next to West Chester University in Pennsylvania.
Family Weekend
Family weekend was a great success and thankfully the weather stayed nice! If you have pictures from family weekend that you would like to add, please email Dr. Isaac Woo (woocw@jmu.edu) or Chelsea Legendre (legendcj@dukes.jmu.edu).
Upcoming Events
PRSSA Agency Visit
PRSSA is taking their first trip of the year to D.C. to visit different PR agencies today. The organization will be taking a bus up to D.C. and have the opportunity to meet with PR professionals. Then there will be an alumni networking event to conclude the trip.
IABC Meeting
SCOM’s newest organization, the International Association of Business Communications, will be having one more meeting prior to their elections. Elections will be held in November and if you are interested in running for a position, you will not want to miss these meetings! Contact Dr. Heather Carmack at carmachj@jmu.edu for more information.
Next Meeting: October 17th
Time: 6:30 PM-7:30 PM
Ready for the Family Weekend?
Well, family weekend hasn’t started yet, but, SCOM had another good week.
SCOM Speech Team
The JMU Speech Team completed their second weekend of competition at Liberty University. The team competed against a number of Virginia schools including George Mason University, Liberty University, Radford University, Lynchburg College and Virginia University of Lynchburg as well as out-of-state schools including Seton Hall University (NJ), Cedar Crest College (PA), Lafayette College (PA) and Bowling Green State University (OH). Overall the team finished in 2nd place with 7 members on our team to George Mason University with 28 members on their team.
Individual results are as follows:
Day 1:
Shelby Akins (Sr, SCOM) 1st Communication Analysis
Jessie Bur (Jr, Eng/SMAD) 6th Poetry Interpretation, 5th Impromptu Speaking, 1st Persuasive Speaking, 2nd Overall Speaker
Zach Healy (Sr, SCOM/SMAD) 1st Informative Speaking, 5th Overall Speaker
Katie Lese (Sr, SCOM) 3rd Informative Speaking. This event is now qualified for our national tournament in April.
Nathan Selove (Fr, THEA) 6th Dramatic Interpretation, 4th Duo Interpretation with Smith, 3rd After Dinner Speaking
Kendrick Smith (So, Eng/SPAN) 4th Duo Interpretation with Selove, 2nd Program Oral Interpretation
Day 2:
Shelby Akins 3rd Communication Analysis, 6th Prose Interpretation
Jessie Bur 1st Persuasive Speaking, 3rd Impromptu Speaking
Abby Fiege (Fr, MATH) 6th After Dinner Speaking
Zach Healy 2nd Prose Interpretation, 3rd Poetry Interpretation, 3rd Duo Interpretation with Lese, 5th Informative Speaking, 2nd Overall Top Speaker
Katie Lese 3rd Prose Interpretation, 3rd Duo Interpretation with Healy
Nathan Selove 2nd After Dinner Speaking, 5th Duo Interpretation with Smith
Kendrick Smith 1st Program Oral Interpretation, 7th Poetry Interpretation, 5th Dramatic Interpretation, 5th Duo Interpretation, 4th Overall Top Speaker.
Next weekend the team travels to George Mason University. The team is coached by Lee Mayfield and Alyssa Reid.
Congratulations!!
Field Trip
Professor Isaac Woo’s Sports Public Relations class (SCOM 313: Topics in Communication Studies) visited the Washington Capital’s game last Friday.
Thanks to Megan Elchenberg, communication coordinator, Brian Kiefer, PR asssitant, and Debs Francisco, web manager, students had great experience here.
Please visit here (http://bit.ly/1g7uqIL) to read more about what they leaned from this experience.
Upcoming Events
Debate Team
James Madison University is hosting a debate exploring the ethical issues of animal based research. The debate is part of a larger series of over 20 universities and the JMU is the only university in the United States that has been invited to participate. The debate will be at 7:30 in Miller 1101 on October 14th.
More information can be found here:
http://animalresearchdebate.idebate.org/news-articles/big-animal-research-debate-goes-international
PRSSA Agency Visit
JMU PRSSA will have their first agency visit of the year to D.C. on October 11th, Friday.
Places they are visiting are
- The Adfero Group
- APCO Worldwide
- Fleishman Hillard
- Burson Marsteller
- AARP
- Fannie Mae
- Weber Shandwick
- Ketchum
Family Weekend
Family weekend is here! From the football game, to picnics, to a 5K race, Family Weekend is shaping up to be a lot of fun! For a more detailed schedule click here. Comment below if your parents are coming up!
If you have any events or activities of SCOM to share, please send information to Dr. Isaac Woo (woocw@jmu.edu) or Chelsea Legendre (legendcj@dukes.jmu.edu) or Tweet us @JMUSCOM.
Winning SCOM Teams and Returning Alumni
This week, people in SCOM hosted and participated in many events. Here is the week in review:
SCOM Speech Team
The senior members of the JMU Speech Team traveled to San Marcos, TX to compete in the Hill Country Swing hosted by The University of Texas at Austin and Texas State University. Both days of competition found the team competing against 13 teams from across 5 states including; Rice University, Texas A&M, Doane College, Colorado College, LSU, among others. With only ten events in the tournament the first day’s competition found 7 of the 10 events from JMU in the final rounds of competition and 6 events in finals the second day of competition. The individual results are as follows:
Day 1 (September 21)
- Shelby Akins (Sr, SCOM) 6th place Informative Speaking, 4th place Communication Analysis
- Zach Healy (Sr, SCOM/SMAD) 3rd place Informative Speaking, 3rd place Poetry Interpretation
- Katie Lese (Sr, SCOM) 2nd place Informative Speaking, Champion Prose Interpretation, 4th place Dramatic Interpretation, 2nd Overall Top Speaker
The team finished 2nd Overall Top Team to UT-Austin (a team of 33 members)
Day 2 (September 22)
- Shelby Akins Champion Communication Analysis
- Zach Healy Champion Prose Interpretation, 3rd place Duo Interpretation
- Katie Lese 2nd place Informative Speaking, 3rd place Duo Interpretation, 3rd Dramatic Interpretation
The team finished 4th overall on day two
For the weekend, JMU was recognized as the 2nd Top Team and Katie Lese was recognized as the 2nd Overall Top Speaker, Zach Healy was recognized as the 3rd Top Speaker, and Shelby Akins was recognized as the 10th Top Speaker out of over 130 competitors. If you have any of these amazing students in your classes please thank them for the job they have done representing our program and JMU.
The team next travels to Lynchburg University this weekend to compete in the Liberty University/SNAFU Swing Tournament.
Alumni Visit to Campus
Brian Hrubik (’11, Fleishman-Hillard) and Kara Frank (’12, Adfero Group) visited the campus on Monday. They had a guest lecture at the SCOM 261, PR Technique I: Written class of Dr. Janell Bauer and spoke with members of PRSSA JMU Chapter at their weekly meeting.
After teaching digital strategies in PR writing at Dr. Bauer’s class, Brian and Kara gave job advice and shared their work experiences as young public relations professionals at the PRSSA meeting.
We always appreciate our alumni coming back to the campus and support SCOM students. Thank you, Brian and Kara!!
Debate Team Contributes for I-Week.
On Tuesday September 24, 2013 the Office of International Programs and Madison Debate Society sponsored a public debate on the topic: Resolved: U.S. warrantless wiretapping has done more harm than good for society.
Please visit the JMU Debate team blog to read more detail and check the video here.
JMU official twitter also recognized this event.
If you have any events or activities of SCOM to share, please send information to Dr. Isaac Woo (woocw@jmu.edu) or Chelsea Legendre (legendcj@dukes.jmu.edu) or Tweet us @JMUSCOM.
News Release: SCOM Announces New Master of Arts Graduate Program in Communication and Advocacy
HARRISONBURG, Va. – This fall, James Madison University announced that the School of Communication Studies will be offering a Master of Arts program in Communication and Advocacy. The new graduate program will begin fall 2013.
Advocacy Studies professor, Alison Bodkin, says that “the graduate program will give students opportunities to advance their studies and to open up a breadth of interests that they did not know of.”
According to the Master of Arts in Communication and Advocacy website, students who are interested in the Communication and Advocacy graduate program will be required to have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. Satisfactory scores on the Graduate Record Examination as well as overall GPA will also be taken into admission consideration.
The graduate program allows students to choose between two concentrations in health or environmental communication. The program will require 36 credit hours of graduate coursework. According to the website, students should complete 18 credit hours of core course work in advocacy studies, applied interpersonal and organizational communication as well as communication research methods. Students will choose their concentration after nine credit hours of study in advocacy topics both in academic and professional contexts. Six credit hours of thesis or internship credit will be required for students to gain experience in the field. The graduate students should also complete at least three credit hours of elective course work in any academic program.
Director of the Master of Arts program in Communication and Advocacy, Melissa Aleman, says that “students can choose from a variety of career paths, whether that be in Strategic Communication, Public Relations, Communication Consulting, Media Relations, Environmental Communication, Environmental Advocacy, Communication Development and Management, Patient and Healthcare Advocacy, Research and Program Development, Community Outreach and Relations, Advocacy/Civic Program Coordination or Health Communication and Outreach.” She also explains that “through theoretical research, campaign theories and work in advocacy organizations will help prepare students for their selected career path.”
According to the website, the deadline for students interested in applying for the graduate program is February 15. Applicants will submit their graduate applications at http://www.jmu.edu/grad/admissions/Comm_&_%20Adv.pdf. A written offer of admission will be sent to the applicant if they are accepted into the program. The letter of acceptance will include the effective date of admission as well as the faculty adviser assigned to the applicant.
“I loved attending graduate studies at Miami University of Ohio; I realized that everyone’s education is richer, more relevant and recent. Everyone is challenging each other to be better,” explains Bodkin.
The School of Communication Studies is part of the College of Arts and Letters at James Madison University. Their mission is the teaching of communication theory and criticism, the development of communication and advocacy skills, the research of communication processes and practices, and the application of generated knowledge about human communication toward the betterment of self and community. Visit http://www.jmu.edu/commstudies for more information.
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News Release: JMU Speech Team to compete at the University of Pennsylvania
The James Madison University Speech Team will compete in a tournament at the University of Pennsylvania this Saturday, November 10. Ten JMU students will compete in 26 different events. The scores of these individual events are added together for a total final team score, according to Lee Mayfield, coach of the JMU Speech Team.
The team competes almost every weekend, but most students attend two competitions a month, according to junior communication studies major Katie Lese. She says, “I enjoy these tournaments because it’s such an interesting community and platform and audience to speak to because it’s people that want to listen to you and you can talk about virtually any topic that’s not really held by bound of any classroom.”
Mayfield says that the JMU Speech Team has been ranked nationally nine times since 1992. “Just two years ago, in 2011, they were ranked the 19th team in the nation,” Mayfield adds. There are about 20 students on the team, representing a variety of majors, including SCOM, English, International Affairs and Psychology.
More information about the Speech Team can be found at www.jmuspeechteam.org
The School of Communication Studies is part of the College of Arts and Letters at James Madison University. Their mission is the teaching of communication theory and criticism, the development of communication and advocacy skills, the research of communication processes and practices, and the application of generated knowledge about human communication toward the betterment of self and community. Visit http://www.jmu.edu/commstudies for more information.
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