Lauren SlivaBarbecue, football and broadcasting. Music, multimedia and live music. Tex-Mex and Twitter. These things made up the lives of about 10,000 college and high school students around the world during weekend the of Oct. 30 to Nov.1.
Students journeyed to Austin, Tx. for the 88th Annual National College Media Convention. Three Cabrini students, Caitlin Friel, senior communication major; Nicholas Guldin, sophomore communication major and Justin Sillner, sophomore communication major, were three of those 10,000 students.
“Texas has an atmosphere like nowhere else I’ve ever been, kind of the place where fun and craziness come first. It’s intense,” Guldin said.
The media convention was held in the Austin Convention Center and in the Hilton Hotel. Students populated the hotel lobby with iPhones and MacBooks. They brought an abundance of materials to show off including newspapers, radio station t-shirts and talent.
Cabrini College was a finalist in the College Broadcasters, Inc. National Student Production Awards for Best Radio Documentary. Seniors Caitlin Friel, Mallory Terrence and Gillian Davis made the radio documentary, entitled “The Global Food Crisis,” last year. Friel accepted the plaque on behalf of her group.
“I couldn’t even believe I was even considered for the award. Radio has really helped me realize what my true passion is and what I want to do with the rest of my life,” Friel said.
Friel, Guldin and Sillner also broadcasted live from Texas on Oct. 30 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the morning. The group held a radio show entitled “Avoiding the Silence” that aired on the CBI Cybercast, where they played the latest in Top 40 music and talked about the latest in news and sports.
The convention held conferences about broadcast and newspaper. Some of these conferences included tips on how to become a better sports writer and how to make creative promos.
“I come from a small school with a very small radio station. It’s amazing to talk to other schools about their radio stations to get ideas about promotion,” Sarah Harndon, a senior from Northern Kentucky University, said.
“It is interesting to go to a conference and see journalism from a different perspective than what you learn in a classroom,” Lucas Fahrer, a junior from Doane University, said.
All students agreed that the conference was a beneficial experience. They were given many great ideas to help build their newspapers or radio stations into something they always dreamed. The convention sparked the fire in students to see what they need to do to get their names in the communications market.
“We do this convention every year. You always seem to forget who the convention is for. But when you see the halls filling up with kids or watch all the chairs being filled you realize, this convention is all about the students,” Warren Kozireski, president of College Broadcasters, Inc., said.
