MU| F e a t u r e s
I
t was one of those early spring days at
Manchester when students gravitate to
the mall for Wiffle ball or Frisbee or
just to feel the sun.
Darryl Ray and Ekta Saini would go outside
later. On this sunny afternoon, the two were
editing video for a class project, holed up in a
windowless room of the Academic Center as if
there were no place they’d rather be.
The digital media majors had found their
calling in one of the three new programs in
MU’s Communication Studies Department.
For years, a communication studies major
at Manchester prepared graduates for a
range of careers such as print journalism or
broadcasting. It still does. But a recent focus
on moving the department into the future
prompted faculty to provide communication
studies students with more specialized options.
The result has been the addition of three new
majors in the department: digital media, public
relations and health communication.
“The feedback we were getting from
graduating seniors indicated that they wanted
the ability to specialize their study,” says Judd
Case, associate professor and department chair.
By the courses they were concentrating in,
Case says, “students were kind of putting
themselves into these majors anyway.”
Case and his colleagues researched the job
market and took stock of where recent
Manchester graduates were getting jobs.
Aligning majors in the department with
more specific career objectives “is giving
communication studies majors a stronger sense
of direction,” according to Case.
The digital media and public relations
majors started in 2017-18 and the health
communication major began officially this
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fall. Gabriela Morales, assistant professor,
came to MU last year to teach and develop
the curriculum for health communication, a
rapidly growing field of study more common
at large universities than small institutions like
Manchester. learn more about it.” She added digital
media as a second major “because you
can connect with more people” on digital
platforms. After graduation in May, Ekta
hopes to incorporate her skills into a career
promoting social justice.
People who merge an understanding of
health care with strong communication
skills can find jobs in all kinds of areas,
including medical writing, marketing, health
care administration, hospital education
departments, public policy, and more. MU
students also can strengthen their hand in the
job market by pairing a health communication
major with a second major or minor in one of
the sciences, business or perhaps a language. Career success is the ultimate goal of any
major in MU’s communication studies
department and others have noticed.
Manchester last year was named one of
the 10 best colleges for communication
majors in Indiana by Zippia, the web-based
career connection that looked at how MU
communication graduates were faring in
the job market, among other criteria.
Importantly for Manchester, Morales says,
a health communication major also can
provide an alternative health care career for
students who enroll at MU to be physicians
and decide that isn’t for them. “Health care
is not just doctors and nurses,” she says.
Adds Tim McKenna-Buchanan, an assistant
professor, “If they made the decision to
come to Manchester we should have other
opportunities for them.”
Darryl Ray ’18 was one of those students
who came to MU to become a doctor.
Originally a biology major, the Chicago native
ended up in communication studies where,
he says, “taking a little bit of everything”
helped him discover what he wants to do. As
a student, Darryl worked as a producer with
Spartan Stream, the University’s online media
hub which evolved from the former WBKE
radio station. He graduated in May with a
digital media major and eventually hopes to
have his own radio show.
For her part, Ekta started out as an English
major. The senior from Fort Wayne took the
media literacy class and discovered that she
loved editing video. “I realized I wanted to
“We have students
competing for top
internships and
getting them,” says
McKenna-Buchanan,
the faculty point
person for the public
relations major.
Public relations
stresses a lot of
hands-on experience
and at MU we do this
through problem-
based learning, he
adds. Ironically, one
of the best things
that can happen to
a student is when
working closely
on a project or
with a client they
experience some kind
of failure “because
they learn so much
from it.” Working with real businesses and
organizations prepares students for what
to expect – which is often the unexpected.
“We try to get students to think on their
feet,” he says.