Career Options
Communication majors select courses that may lead to a variety of career choices. These career choices include public relations and advertising, print and broadcast journalism, business and industry, law, education, community relations, administration, government, arts and entertainment, and social and human services. Specifically, graduates of the College's Communication and Theatre Arts department are currently working as media buyers, advertising and sales representatives, photographers, journalists, lawyers, television and film producers and directors, media personalities, direct sales representatives, and publishers.
Academic Options
Some communication majors choose to continue their education through graduate and post-graduate degree programs throughout the country. These students acquire masters and doctoral degrees in film, radio and television, speech communication, law, theatre, and other related areas.
Program Options
Graduates need to be prepared for potential career changes which may occur throughout their professional lives. They need to be educated for change. A liberal arts education at St. Scholastica provides a rich diversity and variety of training in communication that will aid graduates in facing the challenges of a constantly changing job market. Majors, as part of their college requirements, are required to take not only communication courses, but also a variety of courses in the behavioral arts and sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, as well as humanities. Majors also complete a minor in a second academic area.
The communication major is quite flexible, allowing students to enroll in elective courses within the department as well as in other disciplines. The program is designed to develop a broadly educated person.
Required Courses
Mass Communication
Moving Image
Voice and Diction
Intercultural Communication
Argumentation
Persuasion
Mass Media Law and Ethics
4 Elective courses within the department
Highlights of the Communication Program
Majors can complete an internship of four to sixteen credits (which is the equivalent of a full semester of academic credit). The internship may be completed all at once at one location, or be taken in four credit units in up to four different locations and spread throughout the junior and senior years. For example, a student might complete eight credits in radio news, four credits in TV production, and four in public relations.
Students can focus their elective courses on photography, film, advertising, journalism, theatre, or communication theory. OR they can enroll in a variety of these courses.
Production facilities include black and white and color photography labs, beginning and advanced audio production studios, and television production facilities, including a new digital edition suite.
The department is a member of the National Communication Association, a national organization of communication professionals which provides opportunity to share research as well as career placement information.
Faculty
St. Scholastica faculty know their students by name and develop working relationships with their majors.
Julie Ahasay is an experienced public relations and advertising professional, having worked directly in that field before joining the department where she brings her professional perspective to her classes. She is active in local theatre and is seen regularly on the stage at numerous theatrical organizations.
Steve Erickson is a former news broadcaster and radio announcer, most currently involved in instructional media productions for a variety of audiences. Steve has a specialist degree in information media and has taught at the college level for close to thirty years. He is the advisor for CSS News.
Tammy Ostrander, who is currently the Dean of the School of Arts and Letters, holds a doctorate degree in communication theory, specializing in persuasion and rhetoric. She appears in community theatre productions and directs for the CSS Theatre.
Ed Smith, a former television news director, writes and produces independent video documentaries. His teaching expertise includes advanced training photographic techniques and media. Ed is the advisor for The Cable.
Merry Renn Vaughan oversees the Theatre Program associated with the department. She is skilled in directing both musical theatre pieces as well as non-musical theatre. She frequently shares her talent with various community theatre groups.
Nathan Carroll is an expert in film studies, especially in relation to American culture. In his free time he watches and collects movies and has published articles in film journals such as The Velvet Light Trap and The Moving Image.
