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| Photo by Autumn Zenor |
| WISH-TV’s Tina Cosby visited the school as a panelist giving career advice. |
An Indianapolis news director offered graduate videographers his formula for making TV news “with soul.”
And Myra Borshoff Cook of public relations firm Borshoff told students how she rose to one of the most prominent public relations positions in the state.
Visiting professionals continue to head for Ernie Pyle Hall, dropping by in large numbers as professors seek experts from the working world to enhance class lessons.
In three classes alone — assistant professor Mike Conway’s J520 Video Storytelling and Winslow Visiting Professor Jim Bright’s J110 Foundations of Journalism and Mass Communication and J428 Public Relations Planning and Research — 40 guests have visited or plan to visit during the semester.
Freshman Harry Buc, a J110 student who hasn’t decided on a specific field of journalism, said the approach is helpful.
“Bringing in speakers to our class is a lot more beneficial than running through a textbook,” he said. “You get to hear about real world experiences.”
Buc said Josh Rawitch, public relations director for the Los Angeles Dodgers, left a strong impression on him because of his clear love for his job.
For the guests, the visits are a way to meet students who may become colleagues down the road.
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| Photo by Jonathan Hiskes |
| WTHR videographer Steve Rhodes told students that great storytelling has "the pace of a roller coaster." |
Rhodes and others say they are curious about today’s crop of prospective journalists and enjoy sharing advice and answering questions in the classroom.
“I think speakers get a lot out of talking to students,” said Dean Brad Hamm. “That’s why they come. Most of them are incredibly busy.”
The school hosts a formal Speaker Series each semester, bringing high profile guests such as Bob Woodward, Christopher Hitchens and Anna Quindlen, but classroom guests often are more available to answer questions from students, Hamm said.
“The lecture series brings in the biggest names, but the best stuff happens in the classrooms on a daily basis, with students working with mentors and professionals,” he said.
Both Conway and Bright said a diversity of voices was more valuable to students than anything they could teach on their own. And both used connections from previous jobs to contact potential visitors.
“With visual storytelling, I’ve been wanting to teach it for a long time,” Conway said. “There are a lot of people very passionate about it and not a lot of classes teaching it.”
ESPN anchor Dana Jacobson will visit the class Oct. 22 and Today Show correspondent Bob Dotson will visit Nov. 5.
“It keeps me honest, too,” Conway said. “It keeps me up to date on what’s going on in the industry. As a professor, you’re involved in the working world, but not on a daily basis. So I learn things too about how jobs are changing.”
Bright said the variety is also helpful.
“I don’t care if you’re the best speaker on the planet,” he said, “over the course of a 16-week semester, by golly, I get bored with hearing myself.”
Last year, he brought in Duke University Hospital spokesman and alumnus Jeff Molter, who led the hospital’s response after surgeons gave the wrong heart and lungs to a 17-year-old girl, a fatal mistake. Molter appeared on 60 Minutes to talk about the case.
Guest speakers with stories like that can teach students quite a bit about crisis communications, Bright said.
“If I can bring them to share their stories, their insights and their wisdom, it makes the textbooks come alive,” he said.
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The school hosts a formal Speaker Series each semester, bringing high profile guests such as Bob Woodward, Christopher Hitchens and Anna Quindlen, but classroom guests often are more available to answer questions from students, Hamm said.
“The lecture series brings in the biggest names, but the best stuff happens in the classrooms on a daily basis, with students working with mentors and professionals,” he said.
Both Conway and Bright said a diversity of voices was more valuable to students than anything they could teach on their own. And both used connections from previous jobs to contact potential visitors.
“With visual storytelling, I’ve been wanting to teach it for a long time,” Conway said. “There are a lot of people very passionate about it and not a lot of classes teaching it.”
ESPN anchor Dana Jacobson will visit the class Oct. 22 and Today Show correspondent Bob Dotson will visit Nov. 5.
“It keeps me honest, too,” Conway said. “It keeps me up to date on what’s going on in the industry. As a professor, you’re involved in the working world, but not on a daily basis. So I learn things too about how jobs are changing.”
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| Photo by Ryan Ridge |
| From left, Dave Furst, Bob Zaltsberg and Michelle Sinning joined Career Services Director Marcia Debnam for a discussion of ethics and the Internet. |
“I don’t care if you’re the best speaker on the planet,” he said, “over the course of a 16-week semester, by golly, I get bored with hearing myself.”
Last year, he brought in Duke University Hospital spokesman and alumnus Jeff Molter, who led the hospital’s response after surgeons gave the wrong heart and lungs to a 17-year-old girl, a fatal mistake. Molter appeared on 60 Minutes to talk about the case.
Guest speakers with stories like that can teach students quite a bit about crisis communications, Bright said.
“If I can bring them to share their stories, their insights and their wisdom, it makes the textbooks come alive,” he said.
