On Fashion, Foreign Travel and Fine Arts
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of features on recipients of the Judith Oliver Brown Memorial Award.
Mia Barnello is eager to follow in her mother’s footsteps. In January, that path will take the junior organizational communication major to the Florence University of the Arts in Italy.
During her spring semester of study, Barnello, a Syracuse resident, will also travel throughout the country to explore the culture in cities such as Sicily, Rome and Venice. She received a $2,200 Judith Oliver Brown Memorial Award to help with expenses. The scholarship assists students pursuing culturally oriented Field Periods and is named for the late Brown, a member of the Class of 1963 who spent her junior year as a Norton Scholar in Switzerland.
“I’m definitely interested in finding the little, not-so-touristy attractions, hidden treasures, the food, the boutiques, and so on,” Barnello said of the tucked-away spots she hopes to discover.
According to Barnello, her mother spent almost a full year in Italy as a college student herself “and almost didn’t come back.
“She studied art in a small town called Urbino. She’s talked about it for my entire life,” Barnello said. “I’m definitely hoping to bring back experiences and memories we can kind of bond over, things we both [experienced] while in Italy.”
The trip will be Barnello’s first trip overseas, indeed, her first time traveling outside the U.S. She is eager to see the work of different artists and architects that she studied in an online art history class taught by Assistant Professor of Art Melissa Newcomb last summer. After visiting museums and churches, seeing sculptures and other famous works, Barnello said she plans to e-mail Newcomb about the experience.
“I want to bring back pictures and things that are exciting to share and encourage more people to [study abroad],” she said.
While Barnello’s mother studied fine arts, Barnello is hoping to focus more on design and the fashion industry, which is a special interest of hers. Last year, Barnello and fellow Keuka communication major Ashley Larimore teamed up on a special class project to create a draft of a fashion magazine for Assistant Professor of Organizational Communication and English Bob Berkman’s media writing class. At Keuka, she is completing classes for a minor in art.
Barnello said she plans to spend at least one day of her overseas trip visiting the headquarters of the Italian edition of Vogue magazine. Ideally, she’d like to get in touch with photographers or writers to get a flavor for the working environment, and see what a “day in the life” is like there.
“In the future, I really want to be involved in fashion. Being in Italy and learning the background, I think will help me decide if I want to focus on fashion through design and publications [or another way],” Barnello said. “Since my hope was to do graphic design and that’s not really offered [in Florence], I’m kind of designing my own [course of study.]’
While in Florence, Barnello will take classes in jewelry design and Italian fashion, as well as a beginner’s course in the Italian language.
“As of right now, I don’t know anything of the language, which is terrifying, but hopefully, that [course] will help. My mom actually didn’t take any language courses when she was there – she just picked it up. I’m a little scared, but … We’ll see what happens. “
Portrait of the Artist as a Graduate
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of stories saluting members of the Class of 2011. We asked division chairs for story ideas and they in turn contacted faculty members for suggestions. We believe they came up with some terrific profiles.
Johnson tells fellow seniors about her internship.
Peering up from the pages of an art portfolio, the model sports a black T-shirt with a playful design bearing a New York City skyline logo with a new addition: Bristol Valley Theater (BVT) in Naples.
To the untrained eye, Grace Johnson must’ve gone to a lot of work getting the model photographed in the T-shirt Johnson designed, then reprinting the image in her professional portfolio. But the Keuka College senior doesn’t mind admitting no one has yet pulled that particular T-shirt over their shoulders.
“I just Photoshopped it in,” Johnson said, referring to the software that has become the industry standard for photo editing.
Johnson's rack card design
After graduation May 29, Johnson plans to take the graphic design work she started during her January Field Period at BVT to the next level. She’ll start an intense, one-year graduate program in graphic design and advertising at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in July. Johnson said she was excited to find a program she considers a “hybrid” of her double major in visual and verbal art and organizational communication.
(more…)
Economy, not Osama, will Decide 2012 Election
From left: Robert Berkman, assistant professor of organizational communication and English; sophomore Robby Magee; COO/Executive Vice President Carolanne Marquis; and Mark Halperin.
The economy, not the killing of Osama bin Laden, will determine whether President Barack Obama is re-elected president, said Mark Halperin, senior political analyst for TIME magazine and MSNBC.
Halperin traveled to Keuka College to deliver the 23rd Annual Carl and Fanny Fribolin Lecture Friday evening. Prior to his talk, he conducted a question and answer session with students and members of the media.
“In all likelihood, the killing of bin Laden will not affect the 2012 presidential election,” said Halperin. “Getting bin Laden was good politically, but it’s done.” (more…)
Mazella Finds Purpose from Field Period
Editor’s Note: This is the ninth in a 10-part series on the 2011 Experiential Learner of the Year Award nominees. Nominees for the upperclass and freshman awards will be honored at a luncheon May 6; the winners will be revealed at Honors Convocation May 7.
The Keuka Field Period often confirms a student’s choice of major and future career. But sometimes, the opportunity to garner hands-on experience in a particular field can send a student in a different direction.
Four years ago, Chris Mazella was enrolled in the organizational communication program and hoped to try his hand at journalism. But a struggle to find an internship with a newspaper led him instead to his high school, where a former teacher suggested he observe how communication plays into teaching. After observing her 9th grade social studies classes for a couple weeks, Mazella asked if he could try teaching a lesson himself. Not only did Mazella enjoy it, but his supervising teacher told him he was a natural and could do well in the classroom.
Back on campus, Teri Spoor, who manages the IKON print shop at Keuka and supervised Mazella for four years as a work-study employee, remembers well the difference she noticed.
(more…)
Hands On with Hands On Orlando
While many college students choose internships in order to try out a particular career facet, Keuka College junior Allie Walker opted to focus her January Field Period on a cause near and dear to her heart: community service.
The Penn Yan resident, an organizational communication major, serves as a community service student advocate and looked for an internship where she could focus on volunteering.
She found what she was looking for at Hands on Orlando (HOO), a non-profit organization in Central Florida that focuses on solving community problems by inspiring and empowering people to make a difference through volunteer action.
On the Air: Keuka Junior Writes, Records News
Allison Skillman was looking for an opportunity to work with words beside just teaching them. So, the junior education-turned-English major was excited to find a Field Period placement this January writing local news snippets for listeners tuned in to the noon and 5 p.m. news broadcasts on a sprawling regional radio network
Skillman, an East Rochester resident, spent most of her internship writing short news stories, generally no longer than a paragraph, which would take a D.J. or news anchor approximately 20-30 seconds to read aloud. Pithy, local stories might follow regional or statewide pieces in order to appeal to a majority of the listening audience, tuning in to 68 different frequencies of the Family Life Network (FLN), which broadcasts across northern and central Pennsylvania, as well as upstate and Western New York and the Southern Tier.
Headquartered in Bath, N.Y., FLN, a Christian radio conglomerate, attracts a primary demographic that is “conservative, largely Republican, family people, not terribly politically active,” Skillman recounted. In contrast to most radio stations, where operating funds come from paid advertising, FLN is supported by donations from listeners. Its broadcasts reach Buffalo and Rochester, outside Syracuse and east of Oneonta, across the Southern Tier from Jamestown to past Binghamton, then south into Erie, Altoona, Allentown and Scranton, Pa. The noon news report runs for 30 minutes, the 5 o’clock segment for 15 and shorter news updates of about three minutes run seven times in three hours each weekday morning.
“It’s a big news station, but tries to focus on local [news] and make it personal for listeners,” Skillman said. “I didn’t do so much of the big headlines, but more local and issues-driven stories.
For example, one story she wrote, about a Howard man building a house out of straw, garnered interest from listeners.
Connecting with Connected Students
For today’s college students, access to digital information is like oxygen—it’s necessary in order for them to function.
However, this presents a dilemma for their teachers: is it better to adapt to the students’ digital world or stick with the tried and true measures for sharing information and knowledge?
That will be the focus of Reaching and Teaching: How to Connect with the Connected Generation, a panel discussion scheduled Tuesday, March 15 at Keuka College. It will run from 4:15-6:30 p.m. in Hegeman 109 and is free and open to the public. (more…)
Field Period is Front-Page News for Keuka Senior
Keuka College senior Nikki Treleaven, a Marcellus resident, is eager to explore the possibilities of a career in print journalism.
Nikki Treleaven didn’t think anything could top last year’s Field Period at a TV station in Florida, shadowing reporters and videographers out on live news shoots.
Until now.
The senior organizational communication major reported for her first day of Field Period at Gulf Breeze News in Gulf Breeze, Fla. near Milton and Pensacola, on Jan. 3 and was promptly assigned to write a news story on a nearby wildlife sanctuary. It was published in the next edition of the weekly paper, under her own name. In news-speak, that’s known as a “byline,” and since then, Treleaven has had three more articles she wrote appear in print, with one even landing on the front page. Now, the possibilities look virtually endless to the Marcellus, N.Y. native.
“I love this internship so far, and I can’t wait to write more stories, and keep getting published,” said Treleaven, who was previously considering going into public relations after graduation. When she couldn’t find an internship with a PR firm for this Field Period, she opted to try print journalism instead.
An Uncommon Swimmer Hopes for Commonwealth Redux
The last time Durban, South Africa native and Keuka College senior Shannon Crowder competed in the Commonwealth Games, the Queen of England showed up.
So did Prince Andrew.
No wonder the synchronized swimmer and organizational communication major is excited about the possibility of traveling to Delhi, India, in October for the next renewal of the Games.
In Like a Lambda
Three junior organizational communication majors were inducted into Keuka College’s Lambda Pi Eta (LPE) honor society at a ceremony Sunday, March 7.
Lambda Pi Eta is the official communication studies honor society of the National Communication Association.
The new members are Clare Scott, Courtney Webb, and Jenna Wilkinson.
Current members, officers and advisers welcomed them to the organization.
Standing (l-r): LPE Vice President Casey Dahlstrom, Molly McGuigan, Carl Learned, LPE President Danielle Clark, and Tracy Ringel. Seated (l-r): Professor of Communication Studies Anita Chirco, Webb, Scott, Wilkinson, and Associate Professor of Organizational Communication and English Amanda Harris. Missing from the photo are LPE Secretary Shannon Crowder and Treasurer Meghan Festa.
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