Media and Communication Studies Alumni

 

Brittany: Impact Communications & MA in Irish Studies at Queen's University Belfast 

I am a Chartered PR Practitioner and have worked as part of a small team at Impact Communications, Belfast, Northern Ireland, since 2012. Following my graduation from CUA in 2011, I went on to receive my MA in Irish Studies at Queen's University Belfast and began a career in public relations in Northern Ireland. In my role as Account Director at Impact Communications, I have driven consumer and B2B campaigns utilising both traditional and digital PR tactics for diverse clients including: Vita Coco, Sheeran by Lowden guitars, The Basketball Hall of Fame Belfast Classic NCAA tournament, Lockton Insurance, Microban and Liberty IT as well as a range of restaurant and hospitality clients, organisations operating within the renewable energy sector, and a number of annual festivals and large-scale events, and the Ireland-facing leg of a EU-funded consumer campaign to encourage the consumption of European lamb by a millennial audience. In 2018 I was named the Chartered Institute for Public Relations' Outstanding Young Communicator for the Northern Ireland region, and currently hold the position of Vice-Chair for the CIPR Northern Ireland committee. The inter-disciplinary nature of the MCS department resulted in a much more rounded education than I would have received in a straight journalism or public relations course of study. My internships with two PR agencies in Washington not only helped me to apply my in-classroom learning to the outside world whilst undertaking my studies but also set me up with a head start into the professional world, enabling me to build media contacts and gain an understanding of how a busy PR consultancy operates. This experience was invaluable when I entered the job full time and set me up for a quick progression through the industry ranks. 

I feel that the Media Studies degree is one of the most valuable ones offered at CUA. The size of the department enables a strong sense of community, partnership with, and access to faculty and staff, and the topics of study are of increasing relevance as we face a more polarized media and a constantly-shifting media landscape.

Virginia: Digital Operations Coordinator at PaperCity Magazine (Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth)

I would recommend the Media department because it has given me more than I ever imagined. On the surface, a "communications" degree may look like just another field of study, but at Catholic U, your studies are rooted in something much deeper. Through readings, lectures, and research, you're challenged to look at the world of media in a much more critical and reflective way than you may elsewhere. Plus, the relationships you cultivate with professors in the Media department is indelible. They push you to be the best because they want you to be the best. To this day, I still think about them and the classes I took, which I believe says more than words can articulate.

The relationships you cultivate with professors in the Media department is indelible. They push you to be the best because they want you to be the best. To this day, I still think about them and the classes I took, which I believe says more than words can articulate. - Virginia

Kelly: Director of Production, On-Air Promotion for MGM Domestic Networks

My time in the Media Studies department has prepared me for several aspects of my career. Not only writing and critical thinking in storytelling or crafting a message but working with groups of creatives who have different visions of the same project. While at CUA, I did an internship with a small production company that produced PSAs and corporate videos. The team was small so I had a chance to see all aspects of a project from development to delivery. The project that most prepared me for the controlled chaos of production was when I was hired as an assistant editor creating rapid response videos for the DNC during the 2004 Presidential election for the live debates. 

My time in the Media Studies department has prepared me for several aspects of my career. Not only writing and critical thinking in storytelling or crafting a message but working with groups of creatives who have different visions of the same project.

 

Briah: Graduate Studies

Having a degree in Media Studies from CUA greatly prepared me for my current position as a master's student in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies (JAMS) department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The department provides a great foundation for students interested in further pursuing research in the media studies field at the academic level as well as at the professional level. Throughout my years at CUA, I always enjoyed my media studies classes the most! The professors are helpful and supportive of students' projects and assignments. Also, attending college in the nation's capital provides great professional development opportunities.

Throughout my years at CUA, I always enjoyed my Media Studies classes the most!   — Briah

 

Lexie: Tech Start-up

Lexie Fearon graduated in 2011 thinking she was going to use her Media Studies degree to work in documentary film, but has gratuitously stumbled into another track. After getting her first job out of CUA at a technology policy think tank, she got her first real taste of marketing online content and front-end web development. In May of 2013, she was accepted into the Community Partnerships Fellowship with Google, where she was a team lead for the program in Google's D.C. office, managing Google's largest political partnerships on Google+. Realizing that her passion was more in tech and less in politics, she left the fellowship in D.C. and pursued a career at a New York based startup, where she started in September 2014. There, she is currently a support engineer, where her day to day duties mostly include advising clients on technical strategy, troubleshooting their email code, and triaging product questions and issues. 

Having a degree in Media Studies from CUA shaped my aesthetic eye, taught me how to communicate with impact both verbally and in writing, and look critically at content and layout.  — Lexie

 

Jackie: Media Education

Jackie Anderson is currently facilitating information and media literacy in an elementary school library setting. With the support of the media studies department, she was granted the opportunity to take graduate level classes in CUA's School of Information and Library Science. It was after those classes that she chose to get a Masters in Library and Information Science with a concentration in school library at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. As a library media specialist with DCPS, she is using both of her degrees to show students how to access, evaluate, analyze and produce information and media. One week may include a makerspace session, another coding, and another video production. All of these skills and the approach she takes in sharing them with her PK-5th population were fostered during her 4 years in the Media Studies department.

“The critical approach to media led me to explore ways that I could keep analyzing media and information."
— Jackie

 

AJ: Television Editing

AJ Ventura is currently a Junior Editor & Media Specialist at iNDemand Networks, in New York City. iNDemand is the company responsible for the distribution of on demand content to four of the country’s largest cable providers – Cox, Bright House Networks, Time Warner Cable and Comcast – as well as provide live pay-per-view events to all other. His job in particular is one that has many roles throughout a number of different departments, but he is mainly editing various “now on demand” spots (4,000+ spots each year), bonus feature content for upcoming movies and interview pieces for upcoming live boxing events. AJ also manages incoming files from different studios and makes sure they are encoded to the proper specification for other editors to use.

 

“Apart from the technical training that I obtained at Catholic, the two biggest takeaways for me were organizational skills and being able to collaborate with others."
-AJ

Monica: Smithsonian Media

Monica Pastores graduated in 2013 with a job offer at Discovery Studios working primarily as the Production Assistant for the Military Channel feature, “Capturing Oswald” and as the Executive Assistant to the Director of Programming, Post, and Operations. As an undergraduate, Monica interned both at ABC News and NPR covering the national political beat while retaining her full-time student status at CUA. Monica currently serves as the Production Coordinator for Smithsonian Media, representing a joint venture between the Smithsonian Institution and Showtime Networks to make up the Smithsonian Channel. She manages the program review process for all USA programming and works to promote across-the-board collaboration between all museum units in an effort to increase and produce high-quality television programming that exposes the many resources and stays true to the spirit of the Smithsonian Institution. 

“The comprehensive and engaging courses offered by the Media Studies department, notably Advanced Journalism and Junior/Senior Seminar,  challenged me to improve my newswriting technique and think critically about the interpretations of various media forms– an approach I still continue to learn about and explore.”  -Monica

 

Tara: Sportscaster

Tara Petrolino Sullivan graduated in 2003, and took her first job with the National Basketball Association working in its entertainment division as a broadcasting assistant. She worked and traveled to numerous events including the All-Star game, the Finals, and the draft. In 2007, she got her first on-air gig, doing play-by-play for
high school sports at a small cable station in New Jersey. From there she began to connect with other stations in the Tri-state area, including Time Warner Cable Channel 76, CUNY TV in New York City.

Then, in 2009, she got her first "big" break with the launch of MSG Varsity, the nation's first 24/7 high school sports network. She had several roles: host, play-by-play
announcer, color analyst, and sideline reporter. For two years, she served as a major face and voice of the channel covering over 100 live sporting events, hosting over 50 shows, and earning one Emmy and four nominations. She also worked with the Northeast Conference covering men's and women's basketball seen on MSG and Fox College Sports.

During the 2011-2012 WNBA seasons, she served as play-by-play announcer for the New York Liberty.  She reported from the 2012 and 2013 Big East men and women's basketball tournaments for BigEast.tv.  She made her ESPN2 and ESPNU debut covering sidelines at the National High School Invitational.

Read more about Tara in her interview with CUA Today!