Get crafty for a great cause! Join the Communication, Popular Culture and Film Student Society (CPCFSS) this Friday in Skybar Lounge in Isaac’s for a holiday crafting charity event. All crafts will be donated to kids staying in local hospitals over the holidays and raffle proceeds will go to Crafting for a Cure (CFC).
The 2019 Grant Dobson Case Competition brief has been released. Hosted by the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, the competition provides students with the opportunity to showcase their superior creativity and presentation skills to a panel of industry experts.
Start putting your teams together!
To learn more, click here
The Toronto Blue Jays have signed Brock Badgers starting pitcher Alex Nolan.
Nolan recently completed his third year in Media and Communications at Brock and becomes the third Badgers baseball player to be signed by an MLB club after Jamaal Joseph in 2004 and Shaun Valeriote in 2012.
Last season, the pitcher posted a stellar 11.72 strikeouts per nine innings. He had a 1.78 earned run average and 1.05 walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) in 35.3 innings and walked only eight batters.
“Alex has made the program proud. He’s is the product of the culture that we have been building at Brock,” said head coach Marc LePage, who took over the program in 2016. “He’s been special for us and has turned things around. He’s a guy that works from dawn till dusk.”
Badgers pitching coach Fabio Del Rio has witnessed Nolan’s development first-hand. “Alex has worked really hard for this,” said Del Rio. “We have seen him evolve tremendously during his time at Brock.”
Nolan’s fastball touches 93 miles per hour, but that’s not what sets him apart.
“Alex has outstanding command of all of his pitches and has special off-speed techniques with a dynamic changeup, splitter and curveball,” added Del Rio.
Continuously working on refining his craft, Nolan has been pitching in the Northwoods League for the Kalamazoo Growlers this summer, where he has tossed 13 strikeouts in 11 innings.
With the Blue Jays set to assign Nolan to one of their minor league affiliates on Saturday, he won’t be eligible to return to the Badgers roster under Ontario University Athletics rules.
Associate Professor of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, Jennifer Good wrote a piece published Monday, June 10 in The Conversation about how media literacy should become a fundamental component of education through all levels of schooling.
Good writes:
From fictitious organizations posting polarizing messages on Facebook to robustly researched news stories being labelled “fake,” the pervasive power and importance of the media are clear.
And yet what is most concerning is not that fictitious stories are being shared as “real” and well-researched stories are labelled “fake.” Rather, the biggest problem is the lack of stories about how to thoughtfully address the situation not only through media regulation but also through education.
By focusing on media challenges one at a time as they arise, an opportunity is being missed to address the media’s messages and power systemically. Instead, in something akin to a “whack-a-mole” game, problems with social media are treated as isolated issues that keep popping up.
Continue reading the full article here.
Brock’s Collegiate Leadership Competition (CLC) team members took home the regional championship trophy on Saturday, March 30 in Brantford. The team includes (back row, from left) Ruth Benoy, John Gobin, coach Amber Scholtens, William Durward, Stephanie Lasica (CPCF student) and (front row, from left) Grayson Wadsworth-Hayes and Rebecca Balyk.
Though it was Brock’s first time entering the CLC, the six-member team won the regional competition and later found out they placed 16th overall in a pool of 58 teams when the results for all of North America were released on Thursday, April 25.
The CLC aims to provide students with real-world leadership skills while also teaching them to work collaboratively with others.
Starting in January, the team, comprised of students from several Brock Faculties, practised weekly to prepare for six 45-minute challenges designed to test the abilities of each team member to lead designated tasks and follow processes learned in the previous months.
This year activities included setting up 400 dominos, completing a series of puzzles, silently arranging 100 numbered cards and wagering points before making split-second decisions on questions about the terms and concepts the team had reviewed during their late-night practice sessions.
Coach Amber Scholtens, Manager of Student Leadership and Engagement, said the months of effort the team put in were apparent during the competition. “There were times when my heart was in my throat, and I was not even competing,” she said. “But our team remembered to stay calm and follow the example of each student as they took their turn to lead an activity.”
To learn more about Brock’s CLC team, visit the Student Life and Community Experience website.
Congratulations to Nick Printup who was recently named a recipient of Brock’s Aboriginal Student Services 2019 Aboriginal Achievement Award, along with Lyn Trudeau.
Printup is Haudenosaunee and Anishinabe and is about to complete his first year in Media and Communications studies. He’s a transfer student from Niagara College who has already established himself as a published author and accomplished filmmaker who specializes in telling important stories of Indigenous peoples.
“He is very engaged in the community,” said Sandra Wong, Aboriginal Academic Support Co-ordinator. “This is his first year, but he has already made an impact here. We typically don’t hire our first-year students, but he’s so familiar with the culture and does teachings for our students. He’s very deserving of the award.”
Printup said he takes his role as an Indigenous storyteller seriously.
“For so long, Indigenous content has not been produced by Indigenous people,” he said. “I’d like to work in mainstream media, but we’re put into a predicament where we have the ability to tell our own stories so we should be doing that. There’s a void that needs to be filled.”
Wong said the Aboriginal Achievement Awards give staff in the Aboriginal Student Services department an “overwhelming sense of pride.”
“Seeing how these students develop in the growth of their knowledge, we probably learn more from them than they learn from us,” she said.
Read the full Brock News story here
Congratulations to fourth-year Communication, Popular Culture and Film (CPCF) student Stephanie Lasica who, along with Rachel Van Herk, received an award from Education at Work Ontario (EWO) for her outstanding efforts.
Presented annually to two university and two college students across the province, the award announcement comes at the beginning of National Co-op and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) week at Brock, which celebrates the many successes and promotes awareness of co-op and experiential learning programs.
Cara Krezek, Brock’s Co-op, Career and Experiential Education (CCEE) Director, said the pair’s top finish kicks off the week’s events with a great example of the calibre of the University’s students as well as the supports they receive.
“Seeing both students recognized at the provincial level is an amazing accomplishment for Brock,” she said. “Their hard work, combined with the support of so many people across campus, has shown just how impactful our co-ordinated efforts to support student success can be.
Lasica earned a provincial nod from EWO while exploring her career options. She took part in CPCF’s This is my Niagara initiative, an eight-month experiential education internship that allows fourth-year students to engage in event planning, digital marketing initiatives, desktop publishing and branding of events for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Thanks to her outstanding efforts co-ordinating events, such as the Grant Dobson Case Competition and Terry O’Malley Lecture, the 21-year-old student from Etobicoke has been awarded the EWO Work-Integrated Learning Student of the Year award.
Along with the prestige of winning a provincial award, Lasica is thankful for the experience she has received during the internship.
“I learned a lot of practical skills about the field of communications, but the exercise also taught me a lot about myself,” she said. “I am now more confident to work with teams and peers in the workplace, and I find it valuable to learn from and alongside people of many different backgrounds to deliver the best result for our projects.”
Lasica, who is preparing to pursue postgraduate studies in public relations, knows the awards she and Van Herk won are reflective of exceptional individual efforts as well as the University’s emphasis on co-op and experiential learning across all Faculties.
“The entire Brock community and all of the resources here on campus have helped me get to this point,” she said. “It’s important that the Experiential Education team is recognized as well as the Co-op team. Having both of our accomplishments on the same level shows that co-op and experiential education are incredible resources for students.”
As she begins her full-time career as a credit reporting analyst at Meridian, Van Herk hopes other students will follow the example she and Lasica have provided by embracing Brock’s co-op and experiential opportunities.
“Taking part in co-op or experiential exercises is the best decision you can make,” she said. “It takes commitment, but it also helps you gain valuable experience and connections and is extremely worth it. By the time you’re done, you’re much more prepared to take your next steps.”
In addition to her EWO honours, Lasica won the University’s Experiential Education Student of the Year award.
All of the award winners will be recognized at the Community Partner Recognition and Appreciation event on April 9.
Department of Communication, Popular Culture & Film
Lou Cahill Scholarship in Communication
Honouring St. Catharines’ own Lou Cahill, founder of Enterprise Canada, Canada’s oldest public relations firm.
Awarded annually to a third or fourth-year major in Communication Studies who is committed to academic excellence, community involvement and/or participation in charitable activities.
Value: $1,250 + possible mentorship opportunity with a public relations professional
Applications due: Friday, March 29 by 4:00 p.m.
Donor: Communications + Public Relations Foundation
Learn more about the award here
Read about previous award recipients
