UCSB Communication Association Winter Internship Mixer March 7

2024-03-07
6pm - 8 pm Corwin Pavilion

The Communication Association is proud to announce that we will be hosting our Winter Internship Mixer next Thursday, March 7th, 2024, from 6-8PM at UCEN's Corwin Pavilion! This is the first time we will be hosting this in-person event since February 2020. 

This event is aimed at helping current students secure internships as well as to gain valuable perspectives on successful internship experiences. We've reached out to various companies within the Santa Barbara area and are anticipating 30+ companies to be in attendance. These internship opportunities will range from this spring, summer, or even fall of this year in any sort of discipline. 

In the past, there have been up to 100 students in attendance who were able to secure internships as a result of connections made at this event. In addition, the event will also feature a panel discussion that revolves around panelists' experiences with internships, including managers of interns as well as those who had successful experiences as interns while they were students. 

Please wear business formal attire if you can and bring your resumes! Attached below is the flyer to the event and you can sign up on Handshake with the following link: https://ucsb.joinhandshake.com/stu/events/1499961

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the President of the UCSB Communication Association, at adamgarnica@umail.ucsb.edu

Image
Comm Association Winter Internship Mixer Flyer

UCSB Comm Alumni Council Virtual Career Series: Erika Quiel, Vice President, Entertainment for iHeartMedia. Topic: Careers in Marketing

2024-03-13
6 pm-7 pm

UCSB Comm Alumni Council Virtual Career Series

The UCSB Communication Alumni Council Virtual Career Series via Zoom features UCSB Communication Alumni. We wanted to create an additional way for students to connect with alumni and learn about the many job opportunities available for comm majors. Our alumni work in a variety of industries -- from media and PR to legal, real estate, entertainment, hospitality, sports, and more. We have programmed these free Zoom sessions to be informal and interactive. The speaker will spend about 10-15 minutes sharing their career journey and discuss job opportunities in their industry. We will then open it up to a Q&A where you can ask your questions about career, networking, job opportunities, etc. Also, we welcome feedback on future sessions you'd like to see as part of this series so bring your questions and ideas to the session! See https://www.comm.ucsb.edu/alumni/involvement/resources for more information.

Wednesday, March 13, 6:00 - 7:00 pm PT:

Erika Quiel is the Vice President, Entertainment for iHeartMedia. iHeartMedia is the number one audio company in the United States, reaching nine out of 10 Americans every month – we specialize in radio, digital, social, podcasts, influencers, data, and events across the nation and provide premier opportunities for advertisers.

Register HERE. You will receive the Zoom link automatically after registration. 

Image
Erika Quiel Poster

Musa Malik, Sungbin Youk, and Rene Weber Receive Top Paper Award

Musa Malik, Sungbin Youk, and Rene Weber have received a Top Paper Award from the Communication Science and Biology division of the International Communication Association (for the annual conference in June in Australia) for their paper, entitled "Beyond the Screen: Looking for Moral Understanding in User Comments on YouTube Short Films."

UCSB Comm Alumni Council Virtual Career Series: Kelly Mergenthaler (Sterk), Head of Product Marketing, Scope3, Thursday Feb 15, 6-6:45 pm

2024-02-15
6 pm-6:45pm

The UCSB Comm Alumni Council organizes a monthly Virtual Careers session to benefit current students and recent grads to assist them in their career search. You will hear directly from a former comm student about how they got their first job and navigated other opportunities to achieve their current, dream job. After a short presentation by the comm alum speaker, we will open it up to a Q&A with all attendees.

Speaker: Kelly Mergenthaler (Sterk), Head of Product Marketing, Scope3.

Topic: Marketing

Date: Thursday February 15, 6-6:45 pm.

A link for free registration is available at https://www.comm.ucsb.edu/alumni/involvement/resources. Videos of all sessions are available there too.

Kelly Mergenthaler (Sterk) is the Head of Product Marketing for Scope3, a data company on a mission to decarbonize media and advertising. As the primary product marketer defining a new category, Kelly applies her digital advertising expertise and leans on her passion for protecting the environment to inspire advertising companies to reduce their emissions. Kelly was the first marketing hire at the two year old start up that now works with 100+ of the world’s largest brands and advertisers. In her previous role, Kelly traveled across 46 markets to train advertisers on the advantage of harnessing AI to achieve their business objectives. Whether it be emissions models or machine learning models, Kelly translates technical products into digestible, understandable concepts and produces resources for internal and external education. Kelly holds a dual BA from University of California Santa Barbara in Communication and in Environmental Studies. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-sterk-a978445b

UCSB Comm Alumni Council Virtual Career Series: Laura Roenick, Careers in Entertainment, Jan 17, 6-6:45 pm

2024-01-17
6 pm-6:45 pm

The UCSB Comm Alumni Council organizes a monthly Virtual Careers session to benefit current students and recent grads to assist them in their career search. You will hear directly from a former comm student about how they got their first job and navigated other opportunities to achieve their current, dream job. After a short presentation by the comm alum speaker, we will open it up to a Q&A with all attendees.

Speaker: Laura Roenick, United Talent Agency

Topic: Careers in Entertainment

Date: January 17, 6- 6:45 pm.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-roenick-b5114a7/

A link for free registration is available at https://www.comm.ucsb.edu/alumni/involvement/resources. Videos of all sessions are available there too.

Chris Otmar and Andy Merolla win Top Overall Paper Award

2023-12-07

Chris Otmar and Andy Merolla received the top overall paper award in the Health Communication Division of the 2023 Western States Communication Association Convention. The paper is titled: "Social Determinants of Message Exposure and Health Anxiety among Young Sexual Minority Men in the United States during the 2022 Mpox Outbreak".

UCSB Comm Alumni Council Virtual Career Series: Jordan Gomez, Wednesday Dec 6, 6-6:45pm

2023-12-13
6pm-6:45pm

We continue the UCSB Communication Alumni Council Virtual Career Series via Zoom, featuring UCSB Communication Alumni. Sessions continue the 1st or 2nd Wednesday of most months during the academic year. Join us December 13, 2023(6-6:45 pm) for Jordan Gomez, First Vice President, Kidder Mathews. Topic: Investment Sales.

Link to free registration and Zoom link available here: https://www.comm.ucsb.edu/alumni/involvement/resources

Bedlam Oak

Graduate Student
Oak

Bedlam Oak's research focuses on understanding the challenges to effective community and labor organizing, particularly as it pertains to attracting and engaging members. As an activist and qualitative researcher, Bedlam works with fellow organizers to understand communication and community in labor actions.

Bio

Bedlam has a background in engineering, receiving their B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and working in semiconductor manufacturing research at IBM before coming to UCSB to study Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Fall of 2020. While studying protein engineering in the Theogarajan lab, they became enmeshed in graduate student community, organizing and activism, helping them realize their passion for community organizing. Bedlam is so excited to be switching into the Communication Department, and looks forward to researching the role played by narratives and professional identities in the 2022 UAW Academic Worker Strike. In their free time, Bedlam enjoys rock climbing, running, pottery, gardening and baking teeny little cupcakes.

Education

B.S. 2018, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Chemical Engineering

UCSB Comm Alumni Council Virtual Career Series: Stacy Rackusin, Tuesday Oct 24, 6-6:45pm

2023-10-24
6:00-6:45 pm

October 24, 2023 (6-6:45 pm): Stacy Rackusin, Deputy Director of Development, Jewish Family & Children's Services. Topic: Development. Stacy Rackusin, a fourth-generation San Franciscan, is the Deputy Director of Development at Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, The Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties (JFCS). Stacy has over 20 years of non-profit fundraising experience, including developing better practices for data mining and analysis for increased fundraising success, community engagement, relationship-building, and nonprofit management. Recent prior roles include Director of Development at The Contemporary Jewish Museum and Membership/Annual Giving Manager at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Stacy majored at UCSB in Communication with a minor in Professional Writing. 

Click here (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ucsb-comm-alumni-virtual-career-series-tickets-737147466917?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl) for free registration and Zoom link for the Oct 24 Virtual Career Session.

Howie & Jane Giles, UCSB Grads Jessica Gasiorek & Sharde Davis Win NCA’s 2023 Communication and Aging Outstanding Book Award

NCA Logo
2023-10-09

Howie and Jane Giles and former UCSB grads (Jessica Gasiorek and Sharde Davis) win 2023 Communication and Aging Outstanding Book Award from the National Communication Association’s CAD Division for their book: Giles, H., Gasiorek, J., Davis, S., & Giles, J. (2022).  Communication for successful aging: Empowering individuals across the lifespan. Routledge. The committee commented that the book “is nicely grounded in leading-edge theory and reflective of a productive line of research by the authors and other scholars,” and particularly appreciated that it “focuses squarely on communicative aspects of aging.”