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
We know SCOM has Wonderful Alumni!!
And, the School of Communication Studies wants to recognize our finest alumnus for 2014.
The Distinguished Alumni Award is given every spring to an alumnus who demonstrates outstanding contributions to the discipline or profession and demonstrates outstanding service to the School of Communication Studies, James Madison University, their community, region or nation.
The School of Communication Studies Community Committee is requesting your nominations and self-nominations for this award by Feb. 15, 2014. The winner will receive up to $1,000 for travel and accommodations in order to receive their award on our annual alumni day to be held in April 11, 2014.
Nomination packets must include a cover letter, two letters of support, and a resume or curriculum vitae. All materials should be submitted to the Assistant Director of Communication Studies at the following address:
Alumni Award
c/o Dr. Toni Whitfield, SCOM Assistant Director
54 Bluestone Drive, MSC 2106
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
OR submit the package electronically to whitfits@jmu.edu
Life as a TA
I had the opportunity to meet with two of the six Teaching Assistant’s for SCOM’s new grad program. Jackie Carroll, from Massachusetts with her undergrad degree from The College of William & Mary, and Eric Dirth, from Iowa and graduated from Saint Leo University in Tampa, Florida.
Read on for more about the life of our first TA’s!
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.
Welcome Professor Shook
Last, but not least, Professor Shook is another new addition to the SCOM faculty, who is also here to help with the debate team. As a debater in her undergrad career, she definitely has the passion and knowledge to coach our student teams.
1. What stands out the most about JMU students so far?
The students here are all “really excited about actual learning and ideas…instead of just answers only,” replies Professor Shook.
2. What are you looking forward to here at JMU?
As the assistant debate team coach, Professor Shook is looking forward to traveling with the debate team—especially this weekend is their first competition in Atlanta. JMU is also traveling with the most teams in the country (or at least one of the larger teams)! Additionally, she’s excited to get to know Harrisonburg and JMU better. If you have any suggestions for her, comment below!
Working on her dissertation, while instructing here at JMU, Professor Shook feels the faculty here is very friendly, and she feels comfortable asking them for help or advice.
3. Do you have any advice to freshman students?
“Talk in class,” replied Professor Shook. Most students do not speak up and could miss out on gaining clarity on a certain topic.
This is for you students, make sure to speak up in Professor Shook’s class! Leave a comment with how you feel talking in class helps your learning process.
Getting to Know Dr. Gochenour
Julie Gochenour held Administrative and Professional (AP) faculty positions at JMU between 2001 and 201, and moved into an adjunct position as instructional faculty spring semester, 2011. With her recently earned PhD, she is excited to continue teaching GCOM with us. “This has been the most wonderful job,” says Dr. Gochenour of her instructor position with the School of Communication Studies.
1. What has stood out most about the students here at JMU?
Dr. Gochenour replied that she loves her students, they are hard-working, fun, willing to learn, and not afraid to ask questions or challenge content – which she encourages.
2. If you could teach any class, what would it be?
“I am happily teaching all GCOM classes—I love it.” She is passionate about her students, and it definitely shows. Teaching GCOM means being around freshman every year, and every year they are great students.
3. Has anything stood out to you of the culture here?
Since 2001, Dr. Gochenour has had the opportunity to see how hard we all work here. She said, “Routinely, everyone gives 120% minimum, typically 150%…which keeps everyone liking each other and positive.”
4. Any fun hobbies?
She loves graphic design and is completely self-taught. She has two rescue collies and has been happily married for 33 years. Other hobbies include swimming and yoga for disabled people.
Dr. Gochenour left me with this quote, “If you go home exhausted and happy at night, you are doing it right.”
Meet Professor Barnes
To continue with our new professor introductions, here is Professor Andrew Barnes, who is an experienced debater. Read on to hear more about his interests and experience at JMU so far!
1. What are you looking forward to most here at JMU?
Working with exceptional faculty who are amazingly supportive of my own development.
2. Do you have any class you hope to teach here?
I have an extensive background in argumentation and debate. Of course Dr. Davis teaches our public debate class but there are other courses that speak to my expertise such as argumentation and persuasion. I am tentatively slotted to teach persuasion in the spring and I am very excited about that opportunity.
3. Have you found anything that is different here at JMU compared to other universities?
Yes. I believe that James Madison is an exceptional place to teach and work as a result of our focus on the student. That focus does not just benefit students. A focus that places students at the center of the university has a rippling effect that makes possible a variety of support networks on campus – from the CFI to mentorship – for individual instructors and professors to develop their pedagogy and hone their craft through a series of best practices. And students recognize and respond well to this approach thereby enriching the relationship and learning opportunities for both student and faculty member.
4. Did you find any fun places around Harrisonburg yet?
There is so much to do but I think one of the best kept secrets is the Water Park at Massanutten. It is particularly great for families but I could imagine having a great time there as a student. A great time can also be had at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Staunton. Otherwise, I just try to get out there and experience the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley.
5. Any fun hobbies?
I love being outdoors (despite my allergies!) and enjoy skiing in the winter, sailing and cycling in the summer and hiking anytime I can regardless of the weather.
Leave a welcome message for Professor Barnes below and be sure to say hi if you see him in Harrison! His office is located in the basement of Roop (G4) if you would like to stop by as well.