Here is a list of our scholars and the faculty member who have invested in mentoring these students:

Kylin Munoz, Senior, Communication (Holly Barker, Anthropology)

James Kim, Junior, Communication (Matt McGarrity, Communication)

Yunfei Zhao, Junior, Communication (Jennifer Halpin, English, Odegaard Writing & Research Center; Camille Dodson, English, Odegaard Writing & Research Center)

Riley Taitingfong, Junior, Communication (Ralina Joseph, Communication; Christy Ibrahim, School of Law)

Alexandra (Alex) Kronz Kaethler, Senior, Linguistics, Psychology, Communication (Jason Gilmore, Communication)

Kailin Wang, Senior, Communication, Community, Environment, & Planning
(Daniel Abramson, Urban Design & Planning)

Rachel Donahue, Senior, Communication (Ralina Joseph, Communication; Melanie Hernandez, English)

Trevor Smith, Senior, Communication, International Studies (Mary Callahan, Jackson School of International Studies)

Adiba Khan, Junior, Biochemistry, Communication, Mary Gates Scholar (Heather Mefford, Pediatrics)

Sheridan Smalley, Senior, Communication (Randal Beam, Communication)

Reginald Gillins, Senior, Social Sciences, Evening Degree Program, Communication (Carolyn Jackson, Education (Bothell Campus))

Visit the Undergrad Research website for more information>>

“I am honored and very appreciative to the LAGRANT Foundation for granting me this opportunity,” Silvers said. “I also want to give thanks to those in my corner who supported and continue to support me in my aspirations.”

The Foundation’s motto is “funding dreams into reality,” while their mission is to increase the number of ethnic minorities in fields of advertising, marketing, and public relations. Silvers is African American and Hispanic, and has recently found that what he wants to do and what he is good at falls into the category of public relations.

“A lot of minorities are being looked past in fields such as these because they are lacking experience or prior knowledge,” Silvers said. “I think by the LAGRANT Foundation raising awareness and being so supportive in finding experience for students makes it a great opportunity that deserves tremendous amounts of credit.”

Now a senior planning to do a fifth year, Silvers has been working hard to get his GPA up in order to be competitive for scholarships. He is looking to work in public relations in the entertainment or hospitality field and plans to use the money awarded to fund another study abroad trip.

“I think that studying abroad is something that stands out tremendously in the PR and marketing world,” Silvers said. “A lot of the big agencies are international and I feel as if I have studying abroad as one of my ‘playing cards’ then it makes me stand out as an applicant showing that I can adapt to the culture around me.”

Silvers has done a summer study abroad trip to Barbados and also went on a national student exchange to the University of Hawaii. He said both opportunities gave him a chance to immerse himself in a new culture and identity, which is a great skill to have in the field he is hoping to join one day.

Azeb Madebo

The first National Communication Association (NCA) Undergraduate Honors Conference will take place at American University in Washington D.C. on May 16 to 19. UW undergraduates Samra Mengistu and Azeb Madebo are among the 40 students who will be attending, as the conference is designed to “assist rising seniors majoring in communication in preparing for their capstone projects and post graduation plans.”

Both students found out about the opportunity through Professor Ralina Joseph. They took Black Cultural Studies during winter quarter and developed their research ideas from that course.

Samra Mengistu

Mengistu taught black history every Wednesday morning at Thurgood Marshall Elementary in South Seattle for the service learning aspect of the class, where she began to n

otice how race operated within the school and the differences between the Accelerated Progress Program (APP) classes and general education.

“The neighborhood kids who are predominantly black living in the area are in the general education program,” she said. “The kids in APP are almost 100 percent white and you can tell what kind of class it is just by walking down the hallway and peeking into the classroom. It’s kind of segregation within the school in 2013, so that was really interesting.”

Mengistu attended American University for two and a half years before transferring to the UW and said it will be nice to go back to visit.

“I want to make more contacts with the communication field and get more direction about what I want to do after I graduate,” she said, “whether that be graduate school or getting a job. I would like to work a couple years before grad school, so it just seemed like a really cool opportunity to meet people.”

Madebo’s research paper is titled, “Subversive Black Cultural Production Concealed within Blackface Minstrelsy,” and covers Richards and Pringle’s Famous Georgia Minstrels and the minstrel show from the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM). She will be adding to the research before the conference by looking into audience readings of texts by scholars like Stuart Hall.

“The conference offers a great opportunity to showcase my work, learn from fellow communication undergrads, and network nationwide for graduate programs and mentorship,” Madebo said. “I think it’s cool that as an undergraduate, I can travel to research conferences with the support of the UW Communication Department.”

Madebo added that she is hoping to feel inspired, motivated, and capable of pursuing her academic endeavors after the conference. Both students will be studying abroad in Barbados this summer, where they will continue to study the role of race in a community.

Leon Dash speaks to one of Karen Rathe’s classes. Photo by Rathe.

Last week, journalism veteran and professor at the University of Illinois Leon Dash visited the UW Communication Department, speaking to five classes, participating in a mentor lunch, and being the guest-of-honor at the SPJ meeting in just two days.

Dash is best known for winning the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism during his 32-year stint at The Washington Post for a series titled “Rosa Lee’s Story” about a family trapped in the urban underclass.

“Leon himself is a special kind of journalist,” said Christopher Duclos, president of the SPJ at the UW. “The way he combines ethics, professionalism and being a good person is unique from any journalist you might hear about today.”

But the way he got here may be a bit surprising. Dash started out going to college at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He felt that the curriculum was not expansive enough for what he wanted to study – contemporary Africa – so he decided to transfer to Howard University in Washington D.C. in 1965.

“Because my parents were upset with my decision to leave Lincoln, I told them I would pay for my own tuition,” Dash said.

Dash steam cleaned buildings at night and went to school during the day, but as the weather got colder he thought it would be better to look for an indoor job. Someone directed him to a job at The Washington Post as a copyboy working the lobster shift (6:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.).

“There was no line for that job,” Dash joked, “but it was perfect for me.”

Dash started as a copyboy in November 1965, received a summer internship in April 1966, and by December was a staff writer and “that was it, it just took off from there,” Dash said. Dash did a variety of journalism, including being a police reporter, a foreign correspondent, and investigative reporting.

“The ethnographic investigative pieces that I did from 1984 to 1998 were my favorite,” Dash said, “because you are explaining to the public as to why people are in certain situations, what their motivations are, what their worlds are, and most people don’t know that. Most people live in their own world.”

Throughout his career, there were three attempts to have him become an editor (of which he said he sabotaged them all), and young editors coming in who wanted him to change his focus. Dash said he hit the ceiling and already had four offers from four universities when he decided to leave.

Dash’s second daughter became one of the main reasons he chose the University of Illinois. She was born in 1979 with cerebral palsy and at the time was getting ready to graduate high school. U of I was the first in the United States to develop a program for students with disabilities in 1948, Dash said.

Dash has been at the U of I since 1998 and said his main goal for teaching is “to turn out good students, especially those that have that internal drive to be good students, which not all students have, but the ones that do are noticeable.”

“It’s not every day we get someone of his stature to come in and educate us,” Duclos said, “so naturally, like sponges, we absorb all we can in that short amount of time he is with us.”

Along with teaching journalism, Dash is also a professor of African American studies and law at the University of Illinois. He currently holds the Swanlund Chair at the College of Law.

Mary Joyce, a first year graduate student in the M.A./Ph.D. track in the UW Communication Department, received a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. With fewer of these awards being given every year, it is a generous source of external support for three years, said professor Phil Howard.

Joyce’s research project is titled “The Global Impact of Information Infrastructure on Identity Formation and Social Movements,” where she studies digital activism – how citizens and civic organizations use digital technology to push for social and political change. She said since it is a personal fellowship, the money will support her cost of living and she won’t need to become a teaching or research assistant.

“I’m really excited,” Joyce said. “It will allow me to focus on my research, a luxury for any grad student, particularly one at the beginning of an M.A. program.”

Joyce would also like to extend a special thank you to Professor Howard for “supporting me in this application, writing a recommendation letter for me, and mentoring me in this Department.”

Nautilus: A cephalopod mollusk with a chambered, coiled, pearly shell. They have up to 94 suckerless tentacles and use jet propulsion to traverse the oceans.

Learning about different cultures, English, writing, and science are all interests of journalism student Deanna Isaacs; and she found a way to bring them all together by producing documentaries.

Isaacs began writing for The Daily after becoming a journalism major. It was during her second article that involved biology professor Peter Ward that wheels started to turn about becoming a documentarian. Ward was inspired by a talk given by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about a mysterious marine creature called the Nautilus, of which they did a three-year study finding that more than 500,000 shells were being imported to the U.S. alone for material purposes. Ward has traveled to Australia, the Philippines, and America Samoa to conduct research on these squid-like cephalopods. He’s going back to the Philippines in June and asked Isaacs to come along as the expedition’s communication person.

The Nautilus, a marine creature that not many know about, is the subject of a documentary being created by journalism undergraduate Deanna Isaacs, along with two other students and in partnership with UW biology professor Peter Ward.

“This film is not just about a disappearing sea creature that many haven’t heard of,” Isaacs wrote, “it is about humans and their impact on the world – what we destroy, we can also save. It is about people. We have caused its precarious situation, now it is time to spread the word about the Plight of the Nautilus and what people are doing to end it.”

Isaacs created a Kickstarter campaign to support her efforts in bringing awareness to and stopping the plight of the Nautilus, and hopes to enter the Sundance Film Festival in July 2014.

Elliot Suhr. A mess of cables runs in front of a worn out blackboard in one of the classrooms at Arbor Heights Elementary School.

Journalism major Elliot Suhr’s article “Arbor Heights Elementary: Deliver us from old computers” was published on Crosscut.com, originally written for Professor Usha Lee McFarling’s feature writing class. He writes about the school’s struggle to keep up in this digital age, while being target of two burglaries that continue to set them back. Suhr has interned at seattlepi.com and is currently a photographer for The Daily. After his 2013 graduation, he hopes to become a photojournalist.

Read his article here>>

Students listen to a panel of communications professionals during the Nov. 15 Career Kickstart event, “Break Through the Noise: Get the Internship.”

LAST CHANCE FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

What are your post-graduation plans? Not sure? Let Career Kickstart help! This series of events, sponsored by the UW Department of Communication Alumni Board, features the expertise of communication professionals who want to help you land your first job. Watch a video from “Break Through the Noise: Get the Internship.”

Public Relations in China and Worldwide

Date: Thursday, May 16, 2013
Time: 2:00 to 3:30
Place: Communications 126
RSVP: vsprang@uw.edu

Yung-kai Chung is a professor at Shih Hsin University in Taiwan; a board member of the Foundation for Public Relations, Taiwan;  an Honorary chair of Chinese PR Association; and a Fellow and APR in PRSA. His work experience includes Chief PR officer for Taiwan Provincial Government; Counselor and PRO for the Premier’s Office Chair, WORLDCOM Group; and  Asia-Pacfic Region National Chair for the International Public Relations Association. He is a graduate of the National Chengchi University, China and holds a B.S. in Journalism from Oklahoma Baptist University and an M.A. in Journalism and Public Relations from the University of Iowa. He is an experienced and interesting public speaker with experience nationally and internationally at conventions and universities.

Career Kickstart Happy Hour & Networking

Friday, May 17, 2013
4-6 p.m.
RSVP: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/378191
All students and alumni 21 and over

Meet and mingle with Department of Communication students, alumni, and friends at the District Lounge located in the Hotel Deca in the heart of the University District. No host bar with appetizers provided by the Department of Communication. This networking event is in celebration of a yearlong series of professional development events, including the Alumni Board sponsored Career Kickstart.

How to Prepare For a Job Interview

Date: Monday, May 20, 2013
Time: 5:00 to 6:30
Place: Communications 126
RSVP: vsprang@uw.edu

In this session, Alumna Jennifer Clark (Director of Sales – Sprint) will talk to students about how to prepare for a job interview and land that job.   There are many steps to consider when getting ready to start that job hunt.  Information in this presentation will include some of the following:

• Be proud of your accomplishments as a University of Washington Graduate!
• Follow your passion
• The interview process
• 1^st Interview and what is important as part of the preparation process
• First impressions – Dress For Success
• Resume Preparation & Reference Contacts
• What should you bring with you in an interview?
• Interview questions you should be prepared to answer
• After the interview – Next steps
• 30-60-90 Day plan – How to build one.
• Question & Answer Time

Previous Events

Thursday, January 17, 2013: What I Wish I Knew Before Graduating

Hindsight is always 20/20. The closer you get to graduating and taking those first steps into the real world, the more important it is to remember that everything – from the clothes you buy to your bedtime – will change. In our “What I Wish I Knew Before Graduating” event, you will hear from industry professionals who have been there and can offer up some of the advice they wish they had gotten before they graduated.

Find more information here. 5-6:30 p.m. CMU 126. RSVP: vsprang@uw.edu

Tuesday, February 19, 2013: How Did You Get That Job?

People with the coolest jobs in town tell you how they got ‘em … and how you can get the next one. Join speakers across an array of communications fields, including journalism, marketing/PR and social media, as they discuss the job choices that brought them to where they are today. They’ll also share tips on how you can parlay your unique experiences and talents into engaging new opportunities now and throughout your career.

Find more information here. 5-6:30 p.m. CMU 126. RSVP: vsprang@uw.edu

Wednesday, March 6, 2013: Make yourself more marketable: Land your dream job

Companies look at your individual experiences as only one part of the whole package. Are you sharing the right information? Join to define your personal brand identity and how you can use it to your advantage to land your dream job.

Find more information here. 5-6:30 p.m. CMU 126 RSVP: vsprang@uw.edu

Thursday, April 18, 2013: From Application to Getting Hired: Resume Bootcamp

Connect one-on-one with professionals in your industries to find out tricks of the trade to better prepare yourself for the job of your dreams and coach you in the along the way. Advance registration is required.

5-6:30 p.m. CMU 126. RSVP: vsprang@uw.edu

October 18, 2012: Social Media as a Tool to Connect and Land the Job

Presenters: Whitney Curry, Zillow

Learn resources and skills that help you land the job and remain competitive in the ever-changing technology landscape.

November 15, 2012: Break Through the Noise: Get the Internship

Speakers

• Dane Brandon, Software Developer at Redfin
• Darcy Jacobson (’05), Event Manager at Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association
• Amy Laughter (’04), Major Gifts Officer at Overlake Medical Center Foundation
• Megan Szerwo (’04), Communications specialist for City of Seattle, Seattle City Council
• Jen Whelan, Director of Marketing/Office Product Marketing/Unmanaged Team at Microsoft
• Travis Mayfield, Director of Digital Media Strategy at KOMOnews.com

Watch a video from “Break Through the Noise: Get the Internship.”

Rome is considered by many as a European epicenter of art, history food and culture. This quarter, 21 Communication students decided to take their learning abroad to Rome and its surrounding areas to learn about the city’s local, national and global identity. Lead by Anita VernaCrofts, Master of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) Associate Director, and Professor Nancy Rivenburgh, the students are using the city as their classroom, with the program including sightseeing, visiting the many museums, and taking in the wonders that make Rome so unique. In addition, the students are also taking a 3-week intensive language course to help soften the Italian-English language barrier.

While abroad, some of the students will be sharing their adventures with us back home. Check out Veronica Quintero’s online blog, where she’ll be providing updates on her experience.