A Monthly Publication of the NWC Communication Department

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Fall Break
October 16-19

Fall Musical:
Children of Eden
October 28-30
November 4-6

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Featured Student

Grace Reif

Senior

Major: Electronic Media Communication

What are your goals for the future?: My goal is to be involved in global broadcasting missions work, travel, and see God moving in other countries

What interesting things have you done while at NWC?: I've been involved at the student radio station WVOE for almost four years. I also spent a year in choir, and I'm currently working and interning at KTIS. Being a broadcast major opens a ton of opportunities to meet a wide variety of people!

What is your favorite thing about NWC?:
I think what I love the most is the prayer. I went to public school my whole life. Coming to the first day of classes and hearing the professor pray over us... there's no way to explain how encouraging that is. I've never experienced that before Northwestern, and I know I'll carry that with me the rest of my life.

Featured
Alumnus

Greg Johnson
May 2005

Degree:Communication
(PR Emphasis)

What have you been doing since graduation?

After graduating from NWC, I completed a nine-month full-time internship with the MasterCard Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, where I was the primary media contact for the bowl game and its 16 events that take place throughout the year. Interacting with representatives from outlets such as ESPN was a lot of responsibility (and fun), and Mike Tirico is the nicest guy to work with! Following my time at the Alamo Bowl, I was the Sports Information Director at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida, for a year before returning to Northwestern to take my current position, the Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Information. My responsibilities involve promoting our department and Northwestern as a whole to external audiences through our students' individual and team successes on the court or field and in the classroom. I'm in my fourth year being back on campus and love working with our staff and our student-athletes. Upon my return to the Twin Cities, I also went back to school (something I never thought would happen after earning my bachelor's degree) and got my master's degree at Northwestern. Five years ago, I would have completely rejected the thought that one day I aspire to earn a Ph.D.

What advice do you have for current students? Two things stick out to me. First, learn how to write, and write well. Sportscasters at ESPN often times tell aspiring college students that their career began with writing for a newspaper or something similar. If you can write, you can speak in front of people. Being able to effectively communicate to your audience, whether you're hosting a Pampered Chef party or writing a radio ad spot for Coca-Cola, is something we should all strive for. Also, don't be afraid to take the low-budget or unpaid internship. Graduate assistantships are even better! I made $600 per month working for the Alamo Bowl, and I wouldn't trade my experience for anything. While the compensation may be less than desirable, sometimes the lowest-paid internships offer the most opportunities for responsibility and proving yourself, which will go a long way when you're trying to land a full-time gig. It also challenges you to put your faith in God for His provision that much more!

Yearbook gets a facelift

The brand new Scroll 2010 Digital Media Yearbook is appearing in mail boxes across campus this week.

The Scroll has taken on a new look this year with the advances in software that allow for stories to be told through video and audio, instead of just pictures and words. This dream started when people began wondering how to use the new technology available to display stories of God's work at Northwestern College.

Scroll advisor Rick Busch stated, "The greatest joy for me has been seeing these wonderful stories unfold. These stories and stories like them are what we hope to continue to share as we create a God-honoring keepsake for the Northwestern College Community."

The new technology will allow the yearbook to feature student work such as short films, animations, radio plays, art projects, photography and much more.

Having had a great experience in the production of this project, Busch said, "I have had the pleasure of traveling this new road with exceptional students." He admits to having had several roadblocks, but they always found a way to work around them.

Anyone who was a part of the NWC community during the 2009-10 academic year can expect to receive a copy of this exciting new format that captures the events, people and stories of the year.

Kenny King lands reporter gig at KSAX-TV

Recent graduate Kenny King didn't waste any time landing a stellar job in professional television. King was hired as a news reporter for the KSAX Eyewitness News team just a few short weeks after receiving his diploma.

King began work as a reporter at the Alexandria, Minnesota, station in July. "It's crazy how fast-paced it is," explained King. "Typically, I'm turning out a package and VOSOT every day as well as writing and posting my story for the web. I love it, though." In addition to reporting, King also quickly found his way to the anchor chair. "I've had a chance to fill in at the desk a handful of times already, and I've loved that."

King gained valuable experience through coursework and an active role in electronic media workshops. He hosted Northwestern's late-night talk show The NoCo Show for over two years, taking over as producer in the last few semesters, and anchored the news and interview program that ran on NWC 7 when The NoCo Show ended. King also completed internships with KING-5 News in Seattle and KARE-11's Showcase Minnesota and worked with Northwestern's Office of Marketing and Communications.

"King really applied himself," noted Electronic Media professor Dr. Robin Riley, "And took every opportunity to develop his writing and production skills. And it paid off. I would not be surprised to see him anchoring in a major market station in a few years."

See King's work at KSAX by visiting ksax.com and viewing recent videos or searching "Kenny King" for news articles he's written.

Department launches showcase website

The Communication Department recently unveiled a website, nwccommunication.com, that showcases happenings within the department as well as student work. The site was birthed from desire to expose more people, especially prospective students, to the high-quality work being produced by Communication students at Northwestern College.

"Our students do some terrific, award-winning work," explained department chair Doug Trouten. "But because their work often involves huge video or audio files there are technical challenges that make it difficult to incorporate that work within the overall college website. By setting up our own off-campus hosting, we're able to create a real showcase for the achievements of our students."

Some of the highlights include the short films and animations from the Five16 Film Festival, audio pieces that have won awards from the Intercollegiate National Religious Broadcasters and the top campaign plan books produced by Public Relations majors.

Trouten said, "A visit to this new site will give students, parents and prospective students a chance to see first-hand the great work being done by students in the Communication Department. There's some impressive work there--plus a lot of it is just plain fun."

Check out the Communication Department showcase site at nwccommunication.com.

Expecting great things this Theatre season

With a new Theatre season around the corner, great anticipation is building toward the upcoming performances.

"It's an exciting and academically and artistically ambitious new season for the Northwestern College theatre department!" said Nathan Cousins, Theatre Production Manager. "It's a year of carrying on traditions, phasing out some old ones and trying new things."

This fall will feature Steven Schwartz's powerful musical, Children of Eden, which follows stories throughout the book of Genesis. "It is a beautiful and artful retelling of the tales of ancient and beginning times. Audiences should be thrilled and delighted by the wonderful nuances that this show brings to a story that is so familiar to so many of us," stated Cousins. Performances will be October 28-30 and November 4-6.

The 4th Annual Bathrobe Drama Christmas Festival will take place again this year. Three students will write and direct 10-minute plays which will premiere in the Patsy Miller Studio Theatre. Each show centers around the theme of Christmas and in some way involves a bathrobe.

The season will come to a close with Summer Stock in April, a new theatre festival consisting of three full-length classic plays, featuring a different play each night. You Can't Take it With You, Last Night of Ballyhoo and Bus Stop will be performed in the Patsy Miller Studio Theatre.

"Each of these shows brings something completely different to this season," said Cousins, "and I'm really looking forward to the variety and challenge."

Notable Notes

PR major Brian Gordon is employed full-time in the office of U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann while continuing to take courses via Distance Education.

Electronic Media Communication majors Laura Hoffman and Erin McGregor are currently working with award-winning independent filmmaker James Gambone on the screenplay for a short film.

PR major Jonathan Peterson is employed as a writer for the Minnesota Medical Association. Most of the articles on the MMA website were written by Peterson, who also writes press releases and does editing and proofreading for the MMA's monthly magazine.

Dr. Robin Riley is presenting on his documentary film Utopia on the Rio Grande at this year's Communal Studies Association conference in Indiana. The CSA is an international academic organization that studies intentional communities, past and present.

Recent guest speakers in Dr. Kent Kaiser's PR Principles and Concepts class include Elisabeth Donnan ('09) of Weber Shandwick, Antoine LaFromboise ('06) of Padilla Speer Beardsley and Jeanette Purcell ('09) of the Republican Party of Minnesota.

Dr. Kaiser fielded a team in the Minnesota State Fair's 10th Annual "Agrilympics." His team won the silver medal for the overall competition, which included cow-milking, animal-calling, wool-packing and butter-carving. Other members of Kaiser's team included former U.S. Senator Rod Grams, former State Auditor Pat Anderson and State Rep. Dan Severson, who is running for Minnesota Secretary of State.

Note From the Chair

What I did on my summer vacation

Last month, students across the nation began their school year by writing essays titled "What I did on my summer vacation." My summer included a trip to visit my dad, and that meant flying in and out of Atlanta. My wife and I scheduled an extra day to see a few sights of the city, one of which was Stone Mountain. This is kind of the Mount Rushmore of the South, and it features a bas-relief carving of Confederate heroes Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

(Many folks in the South still haven't come to terms with the outcome of what they call "The War of Northern Aggression" and are hoping for a rematch. I hope it doesn't come to that, since the North is severely outnumbered in terms of armed pickup trucks.)

When we approached Stone Mountain, the thing that struck me most was that we couldn't see anything. The carving was there, but a village of tourist traps has sprung up in front of it, obscuring the view. You have to walk past a lot of funnel cake stands and related attractions before you finally get to a place where you can see the actual thing that the whole park is supposedly about.

In a way, it was metaphor for today's church. It's easy to focus our attention on glitz and glamour, performance and production values, programs and services. None of these things may be bad in themselves (and who doesn't enjoy a nice funnel cake now and then?). But while all of these things may be good in their place, we have a problem if they wind up blocking our view of our risen Lord, who came to seek and to save the lost.

In the Communication Department, we spend a lot of time helping students learn to communicate effectively. Let's be sure that we never lose sight of the most important message we're called to share.

Doug Trouten
Chair, Communication Department