Waynesburg University’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) was awarded the Star Chapter Award for meeting specific chapter and professional development goals. The chapter was one of 27 from around the country honored with the prestigious award. A chapter must meet eight of the 10 Star Chapter requirements to earn the national award.  

Seven members of the Waynesburg University Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) Chapter traveled to the PNC Park Hall of Fame Club in Pittsburgh, Pa., Tuesday, Jan. 28, to work the 2014 Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Pittsburgh Renaissance Awards. The annual ceremony celebrates the brightest stars and best work in Pittsburgh’s public relations community. 

Sándor Mécs, a senior communication (journalism) major at Waynesburg University, traveled to the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., to present at the 28th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) Thursday, April 3 through Saturday, April 5, 2014. The Pittsburgh, Pa., native presented his paper titled, “Burnham's Managerial Revolution: The Unexamined Reality of Contemporary Class Conflict.” 

Waynesburg University’s student newspaper, the Yellow Jacket, was recently named a regional winner in the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) annual awards contest for the Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper category. 

Waynesburg University’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) held its fourth annual PR Week celebration Monday, April 7, through Friday, April 11, 2014. This week-long event recognizes the hard work and dedication public relations majors show within the field of public relations throughout the academic year. 

Dr. Chad Sherman, assistant professor of communication, received the 2014 Lucas-Hathaway Teaching Excellence Award for a faculty member with a relatively recent history of teaching excellence.

WCTV, the Waynesburg University student television station, recently earned a bronze award from the 35th annual Telly Awards for its piece titled “The Buzz: November 11, 2013.” Waynesburg’s piece stood out among nearly 12,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries.  

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From Friday, Oct. 25, through Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, members of Waynesburg University’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) traveled to Philadelphia to participate in the 2013 PRSSA National Conference: Foundation for Innovation, hosted by Drexel University.

Brandon Szuminsky was named Instructor of Communication at Waynesburg University in August of 2013. He received his B.A. and M.B.A. from Waynesburg University. In the summer of 2013, he waspublished within an edited anthology marking the 75th anniversary of the iconic “War of the Worlds” broadcast. Szuminsky co-authored “Mediating Misinformation: Hoaxes and the Digital Turn,” one of the chapters within “War of the Worlds to Social Media: Mediated Communication in Times of Crisis.”

Kyle Oland, a senior public relations major from Westminster, Md., and Nick Farrell, a senior sports broadcasting major from Lower Burrell, Pa., took home the second and third place prizes, respectively, at the annual Gertrude Gordon Contest conducted by the Women's Press Club of Pittsburgh.

Waynesburg University’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) Chapter celebrated the public relations field with a week long event Monday, April 15 through Thursday, April 18, 2013. PR week celebrates the study of public relations by offering professional presentations, networking opportunities and activities relevant to the communication field.

The Waynesburg University Yellow Jacket won a Region One Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for its in-depth reporting of the University’s announcement of Mr. Doug Lee as president elect. Six members of the Yellow Jacket staff attended the Region 1 Spring Conference Friday, April 12 through Saturday, April 13, 2013 to accept the award.

Molly Winters, a junior public relations major, and Brittany Semco, a junior public relations and design major, traveled to Albuquerque, N.M., to represent Waynesburg University at the 2013 Public Relations Student Society of America National Assembly Thursday, April 4 through Sunday, April 7, 2013. 

Last year at this time I was disembarking the Semester at Sea M.V. Explorer in Antalya, Turkey. The next three days were spent soaking up the sun on Turkey’s absolutely gorgeous beaches with an iced mint tea in hand. Fast forward one year, and I’m sitting at my Hasbro desk working with a team leader on what could possibly be one of the biggest portfolio pieces of my career thus far.

It’s not Turkey, but I’d say its better.

Due to the confidential nature of the piece, I cannot disclose exactly what it is. However, I can tell you that it is extremely important to promoting the company’s incredibly positive public image. This is what I love about my majors.

I can promote the company’s mission and positive public relations using graphic design. While the writing in a design is the meat of the message, the artwork is the first impression. You know what they say - “first impressions last.” It’s my job as a graphic designer to make that first impression a good one. From there, the reader/viewer can delve into the writing with the exact mindset and message that we want them to have.

This week also brought the development of another important project. I am now in charge of rethinking and redesigning the main Hasbro building’s internal directional signage. The building itself is the size of a standard city square block.

On account of the size, getting around is difficult without prior directional knowledge. I started my inventory of what signs we already have and where there is a lack of directional signage. I will be working on every aspect of this project from planning to working with the printer to make sure every sign comes out exactly the way I want it. 

Now, seven weeks in to my internship, I have made many friends with coworkers and become very comfortable with the company culture. Spontaneous inner-cubicle Nerf gun wars helped with that (Hasbro and Nerf are Franchise/Partner Brands).  

I look forward to continuing my projects next week and enjoying the holiday weekend, even though I’ll be spending it in Rhode Island and not somewhere off in the Mediterranean.

See you next week.

Brittany Semco is a senior design and public relations major at Waynesburg University.

The first day of summer not only brought with it more tourists and typical Rhode Island beach traffic, but the further development of my logo project at Hasbro (detailed in my last entry). It seems that after the first two options I make for every design, I hit a major roadblock. See what I did there. It takes some deep thought and usually a fresh start to get to a point where the idea is finally “outside of the box.”

Some research on shapes and typography led me to a place where I could start to process exactly what message the company needed to convey with the logo and an idea that I believed would maximize the name of the entity with its mission and purpose (of which I cannot disclose). 

Because of the helpful nature of Waynesburg University’s professors, I was able to send my advisers and a mentor my logo prototype and get some excellent feedback. From there, I was able to improve the logo more than what I ever expected. Getting this feedback and “peer review” was a necessary step before sending the logo to my supervisor at Hasbro. It probably saved my supervisor a lot of time because now I can give him/her the best option possible.

The logo design process for this particular logo helped me tremendously in the process of another, which was given to me last week. I have already made strides toward what I think is a good option for the team. Time and more thought will tell if that is true.

During these last two weeks I have also had the opportunity to take some short online classes. When I had time between projects, I would take some of these classes and I have already learned more than I thought a video could teach me. I learned the science behind product photography and positioning objects in ways that make sense for say, a catalog or an advertisement. 

I learned about designing online portfolios in preparation for the design of my own to showcase all I have done during this terrific internship. I also learned that different shapes influence the feel of a logo. For instance, a circle conveys the idea of flow and movement, while a square gives the impression of structural integrity and rigidness. So a circle may be good for a medical facility to convey its current and dynamic nature, while an academic institution would benefit from a square logo to show its structured nature.

Most importantly, during these past few weeks I have learned the value of dedication to a project. It may seem that your first idea is awesome, but I promise you, the next one will be better because you have given the subject matter more thought.  Stay tuned for next week.

Brittany Semco is a senior design student at Waynesburg University. 

Being a broadcaster takes diligence, preparation and a lot of practicing; you can’t make it in the business if you don’t know the games.

The Waynesburg University broadcasting camp, run by Lanny Frattare, is a wonderfully delightful and easy way to start your career. The camp shows you basics of the business and the basics of how to announce different sports. This experience is an excellent building block.

I know from my experience that I gained a new aspect on how this business works, how much more I can know, and how much preparation is put into each and every single program, whether it is radio play-by-play for the majors or something like a high school football game. No matter what you do, make it look and sound professional, for that portrays a good image of yourself and gives you practice and experience under your belt.

On the topic of being prepared, I began sweating profusely knowing that I had to do baseball play-by-play at the camp, for I knew I didn't know baseball that well, but I knew the basics. I calmed down after I found out that we weren’t going live, that we had a partner, and that, no matter what, the Waynesburg University broadcasting team and my newly made friends had my back.

Speaking of newly made friends, I came to the camp and instantly couldn’t help thinking, “This is going to be super awkward. I won’t get to know many of these people, and I will probably be a loner, or I will be behind in what I know.” That wasn’t the case. The group I went with was great. We all understood that some of us were new, that some people didn’t watch all sports 24/7 and that we would be friends.

Once I got in my room after stepping out of my parents car, I saw that my roommate wasn’t there. At first, I got a little excited because I thought I would have no roommate, but my roommate showed. Hs name was Tanner Widomski, and Tanner and I ended up spending a lot of time hanging out and talking. He was in the same case as I was—he was new in the broadcasting world. So some nights Tanner and I would look over pages and practice together. I honestly couldn’t ask for a better roommate. He and I were just like brothers.

All of us created a relationship with one another. We all talked sports, we all had our favorites, we all had rivals/ teams we hated, yet we all got along. Sometimes there would be heated discussions, yet we all were friends. My favorite thing about this camp was that I can honestly see these guys and girls going out and being broadcasters and announcers. I bet in as little as 10 years one of these kids will be doing the dream, making it happen.

I'd like to thank Lanny Frattare so much for this experience. Thanks, Lanny, for being a great and wonderful role model. Thank you to all the students, staff and professors who joined Lanny.

That’s the Waynesburg experience. It was unbelievable.

-Tyler Dapson
Munnsville, NY

WCTV, the Waynesburg University student television station, recently earned a bronze award from the 35th annual Telly Awards for its piece titled “The Buzz: November 11, 2013.” 

Waynesburg’s piece stood out among nearly 12,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries.  

“The Buzz” is a show that focuses on feature stories in Waynesburg, the nation and the entertainment world. It began in the fall of 2013 under the direction of Kelly Witas, a 2014 communication (electronic media) alumna and former general manager of WCTV.

“This is such a big honor for WCTV,” said Witas. “So many of us put our hearts into these shows, and it’s great to get recognition for that work. It’s also a great end to my college career.”

The winning episode of “The Buzz” featured stories about a 10-year-old boy who suffers from Aspergers, the Boston Red Sox winning the Major League Baseball championship and the Waynesburg University fall play. 

The Telly Awards was founded in 1979 and is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional and cable television commercials and programs, video and film productions and online commercials, video and films. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators and corporate video departments in the world.

A prestigious panel of more than 500 accomplished industry professionals, each a past winner of a Silver Telly and a member of The Silver Telly Council, judged the competition. The Silver Council evaluated entries to recognize distinction in creative work. Entries do not compete against each other but are judged against a high standard of merit.  

“The Telly Awards has a mission to honor the very best in film and video,” said Linda Day, executive director of the Telly Awards. “WCTV’s accomplishment illustrates their creativity, skill and dedication to their craft and serves as a testament to great film and video production.”

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Contact: Ashley Wise, Senior Writer/Editor

724.852.7675 or awise@waynesburg.edu