“This broadcast program professionally sets students up for tremendous success immediately,” said Anna Bulszewicz, a lecturer in the Jandoli School of Communication, who’s one of the main reasons the school’s brand new broadcast journalism major exists.
As an aspiring broadcast journalist at St. Bonaventure in the late 2000s, Bulszewicz felt her education lacked the proper specifications necessary, and after nearly a decade of experience behind a news desk in North Carolina, she wants to change that for the current student population.
“I was able to succeed, but I failed a lot in the beginning,” she said. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault here, but the program wasn’t designed specifically for broadcast. A lot of the inspiration that I wrote and I designed in this program comes from that experience and wanting that full effect for somebody.”
The new major won’t feature an extreme change from the standard journalism curriculum. Every student will take JMC 101 and other base courses; however, as they evolve in the program, the direction students go will be more specifically tailored for success in the field of broadcast journalism.
“[Prior to the new major], how it’s set up, the broadcast courses are electives. You get a couple of courses in a focus,” Bulszewicz said. “[The new major] is structured learning and how to understand a full newsroom.”
The whole learning plan is based on Bulszewicz’s want to give her students the proper tools to be successful and to enact her favorite saying: “I don’t want to just help you get a job, I want you to be award-winning.”
“We want St. Bonaventure Jandoli School broadcast journalism majors to be exceptional the minute they walk through the door,” she said.
Aaron Chimbel, the dean of the Jandoli School, sees the program as an obvious addition to a program with an already sterling reputation.
“It’s kind of a ‘duh, you should be doing that, that makes sense for you school,’” Chimbel said.
St. Bonaventure features a multitude of alumni who’ve gone on to great success in the professional world, such as Chris LaPlaca, the senior vice president of Corporate Communications at ESPN, Rachel Axon, an award-winning investigative reporter for USA Today and Adrian Wojnarowski, ESPN’s NBA insider.
“The alumni are excited,” Chimbel said regarding the new majors. “The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Chimbel, who was named the school’s new dean in August of 2018 following a nine-year stint teaching journalism at Texas Christian University, has been busy tweaking the Jandoli School curriculum in his first year, adding both the broadcast journalism and a sports media major, which was announced back in February.
And the changes won’t stop there; Chimbel said there are plans in the near future to evaluate the strategic communication and journalism majors to bring them into a more specific focus.
“All of these majors prepare you for a wide range of things, and with any of these majors you can’t really go wrong,” he said. “But if things are too broad, then you don’t have a lot of depth, and things aren’t focused necessarily.”
But what Chimbel really hopes will happen is that these new majors will bring more attention to St. Bonaventure and draw more students to the school.
“Prospective students can see St. Bonaventure and say, ‘I can go and do these things and get great hands-on experience and great mentoring because it is a small program,’” he said. “They can be drawn thanks to these programs, then they can realize what a great school it is and what a great education they’ll get beyond that.”
One of the main reasons Chimbel believes this will inspire prospective students ties back to the impressive alumni base.
“One of the advantages that we have as a communication program is that our alums have audiences,” he said. “When they comment and share things on social media, people realize, ‘Oh, Woj went to St. Bonaventure, I want to be the next Woj or Tim Bontemps.’”
Joe Ceraulo, a junior in the school of communication has seen the effect of the alumni base first hand.
“The Bonnies have great alums,” Ceraulo said. “Not just prominent alumni, but alumni who are willing to do whatever they can to help current students. I had Chris LaPlaca reaching out to me as a freshman, Wojnarowksi reaching out to me as a sophomore … Bonnies love Bonnies.”
But at the core, the main reason the new majors have potential is because of the real-world experience they can give to students.
“You can’t learn everything just sitting in a classroom,” Chimbel said, who has seen students attend the Super Bowl in Atlanta and Atlantic 10 tournament in Brooklyn. “If you’re doing media, your work is public, and there’s also a responsibility there, there’s pressure there, there’s also sometimes criticism there, but that’s what it’s like in the real world.”
However, Bulszewicz said in the wake of all the excitement regarding the programs and the new direction of the school, St. Bonaventure’s Franciscan value system is the single most important element when it comes to creating student success.
“Everything we do at St. Bonaventure, and this is what I learned here, first and foremost be Franciscan,” she said. “Some might say that’s corny, but you must be kind when you compete [in the media world], or it could come back to bite you.”
By Nathan Desutter, Contributing Writer
desuttn18@bonaventure.edu
