What’s New with the Business Communication Emphasis?
By LeeAnne Kryder
Our class of 2007 enjoyed several guest speakers—thank you Nicole, Jeff, Janet, and Mark! We worked with a Fulbright Scholar from Romania, Dr. Olesia Lupu. Our wonderful website of 2006 was enhanced by a new webmaster, George Haskell, and two new editors—Daniella Elghanayan and Schad Vanleeuwen― helped us again publish an e-newsletter.
We gained relationships with new employers for internships and new clients for our service learning projects. Several employers and clients from last year returned to make our experiential learning memorable. Dr. Mary Ellen Guffey again awarded one of our students, Ms. Stacey Thornberry, with an Excellence in Advanced Business Communication prize. Alx Sanchez, our mentor in web creation, once again carried us through the challenges of writing for new media.
This year we joined with the other two Professional Writing emphases (Technical Communication and Professional Editing) and enjoyed our first-ever collaborative reception, complete with certificates to honor this year’s minors. Thanks to our new co-directors, Bob Erickson and Michael Petracca, and our office manager, Kathy Jenquin, the Writing Program was able to sponsor this event. Of course, we owe much to our wonderful student advisor, Megan Gallagher!
We continue to seek donors for media scholarships and our eventual computer lab—including its software, color printers, and scanners―and digital cameras and materials for our varied media creations. In time, they will come.
For now, we appreciate our chance to work with inspirational, talented people doing amazing, creative work in advanced professional communication. Be sure to explore our website at bizcommucsb.com to learn more about us and our work.