The Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University hosted its annual CommDay this past Friday.
The event boasted a turnout of over 250 students from local high schools and offered them a variety of different ways to be introduced to the journalism field.
“CommDay is an event that brings high school students from around the area to learn about different parts of the communication field and there’s a competition part of it.” said Jandoli School Dean Aaron Chimbel. “There’s a lot of different elements that really get them interested in the field, introduce them to St. Bonaventure, that’s a great benefit, and provides some practical things that they can take back to their own schools.”
Students were able to partake in a number of different workshops ran by faculty from the Jandoli School. The workshops covered social media, digital journalism, interactive reporting, investigative journalism, marketing communications, writing, sports broadcasting and a live broadcast-journalism experience.
“Prospective students are able to learn about different parts of the industry. A lot of times [students] may have a particular program at their high school but maybe it’s just one piece of a much broader communication,” said Dean Chimbel. “It gives them the opportunity to participate in different workshops… it can really help them develop related skills.”
Not only were students able to gain more advanced journalistic skills, they were given the chance to compete in several competitions that awarded the winners with scholarships should they choose to attend St. Bonaventure. Additionally, if students choose to major in one of the Jandoli School’s undergraduate majors, their scholarship becomes renewable throughout their four years.
The competitions were in the areas of video photography and feature news. The awards were titled Best in Show, offering $1,000 scholarships, Best Photo and Best Feature/News, both offering $500 scholarships. The competitions awarded six, four and one scholarships, respectively.
Students were also able to hear the important skills that are taught at the Jandoli School from esteemed alum Adrian Wojnarowski, ’91 of ESPN who presented the keynote address.
“It was really special this year to have Woj speaking because he’s somebody that a lot of the students look up to and someone they aspire to be like. He’s very prominent on ESPN and just to have someone that’s iconic here to talk to them is just really powerful,” said Dean Chimbel.
In addition to Wojnarowski’s keynote, the students were also addressed by another St. Bonaventure alumnus, Charlie Specht, an investigative reporter for WKBW TV.
CommDay helped prospective students to learn more about the university. The schedule included a welcome address from Dean Chimbel, free time to navigate the school, lunch at the Hickey Dining Hall and a campus tour.
“It’s great to introduce potential students from this region to our school,” said Dean Chimbel. “Especially if they are not familiar with the Jandoli School, Bonaventure lets them know that there’s one of the top programs in the country right here.”
CommDay was originally started at St. Bonaventure as Press Day from 1949 to the 1970s and restarted in 1987 as CommDay.
The Jandoli School has planned the next CommDay for Oct. 23, 2020.
By Julia Schneider, Staff Writer
schneije18@bonaventure.edu
