On October 24, nearly 1,000 current and prospective Communication majors and graduate students gathered at the Yard on College Avenue to attend the second annual #BeCOMM Talk Show.

Hosted by the SC&I Communication Department and organized by Assistant Professor of Professional Practice Mark Beal and his Strategic Public Relations Event Planning course, Beal said, “The greatest impact of the event was to inform and inspire Rutgers students, who have not yet declared a major, to consider majoring in Communication. With the consistent transformation and innovation of communication channels and platforms, there is no better time to be a Communication major at Rutgers University. The major is taking our students into a wide variety of careers that are in demand, relevant for today's marketplace, and very exciting.”

SC&I Interim Dean Dafna Lemish, who attended the event, said, “Congratulations and thanks again to Mark Beal and his team for another #BeCOMM at the Yard! The sun shone, the students swarmed, the live stream talk-show format featured alumni and current students detailing their RU COMM education. The jumbotron showed off how great it is to #BeCOMM! What a fantastic way to engage our stakeholders while the organizing students get to experience first-hand how the theories they learn in the classroom meet practice in The Yard.”

The highlight of the event was the talk show portion, when SC&I alumnus and host of the #BeComm Talk Show, Mike Emanuel COM’90, Chief Washington Correspondent for Fox News, interview other successful Communication graduates who had returned to the Banks for the event, eager to share their professional experiences and advice with current and prospective students.

“I’m excited to be home,” Emanual said, adding, “it is always great to have an opportunity to come back to Rutgers, the place where I launched my dreams.”

Emanuel said, the advice he shared with current and prospective SC&I students during the event was “my best advice, that my Mom and Dad gave their three sons, which is to ‘find your passion.’ If you enjoy, or at least think you’re going to enjoy, what you’re doing for a living, it might feel like you never work a day in your life. If you’re excited about what you are going to do, you will be willing to work hard to the best. My passions were journalism, TV journalism, and political journalism, and now I’m the Chief Washington Correspondent for Fox News.”

Other successful Communication graduates who attended the event and were interviewed by Emanuel during the #BeCOMM Talk Show explained why they returned to participate in the event and the significance of such an event for the future success of current students.

Gordon Deal COM’89, host of This Morning, America's First News, said, “[This event] is a giant networking event of students, undergrads, graduate students, recent grads who want to meet, make contacts, and keep that Rutgers network strong, especially in the communication field. We want to let people know that we’re here for each other.”

Maya Jacobs COMM’21, a beauty and fashion social media influencer and marketer, said to be successful as a social media influencer, “Consistency is key, and if you have a strategy, definitely use it as a way to monetize social media for yourself. Also, be true to who you are.”

Jenn Dunne Keeney, a current SC&I Master of Communication and Media (MCM) student and Broadway actress who has starred in the show “Chicago” for the past decade, said, “If you want things in life, you’ve got to find a way. It takes teamwork in order to say, ‘I’m a slasher.’ I couldn’t do it all without having a support system [from my family] in order to make that picture happen.” After she earns her MCM degree, Keeney said she aspires to work in development in the entertainment industry, focusing on issues pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

To enable students who could not attend in person to benefit from the knowledge shared at the event, and to be able to learn as much as possible about the Communication undergraduate and graduate degrees available at SC&I, the BeCOMM '23 Talk Show was live-streamed via the Rutgers School of Communication and Information YouTube channel.

The livestreaming process was led by MCM students who are taking the video production course taught by Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in the Journalism and Media Studies Department, Neal Bennett. Bennett said he assigned the job of livestreaming the #BeCOMM event to his students because it provided them with an opportunity to gain hands-on video production experience.

In addition to the talk show, other highlights of the event included a professional photographer who offered free LinkedIn headshots to students, free #BeCOMM merchandise giveaways, and free pizza.

“The event served as a way to celebrate the communication major and highlight the alumni who returned to campus to share their success stories,” Beal said.

Learn more about the Communication major at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website. 

Photos: Courtesy of Mark Beal