Students experince convergence first hand

MARISA GALLELLI STAFF WRITER MLG723@CABRINI EDU

The Senior Seminar in Convergence is a course that strives to integrate the traditional forms of media communications and ultimately create a more thorough and interactive project with the intentions of appealing to diverse audiences. The course’s instructor, English and Communication professor Dr. Harold William Halbert, feels that the class is incredibly difficult but he has a tremendous amount of respect for the students that take this class. “This class extends the scope of convergence; it moves beyond the personal desire of the student and what they want to do, helping them to shape how people see their community. It is an exciting opportunity for our students to find new ways of telling stories,” Halber said.

Ryan Norris, a senior English and communication major, acknowledges that the class is a challenge; however, he believes the extra workload to be beneficial. “It is worth the effort, it’s not just a class from 10:55 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.— it is always on our plates all semester, the goal is not just to work till 12:10, it is to work till our projects are done.”

Halbert discussed the background of the class. “This course is in response to the changing nature of communications in general and on a business level. Communication mediums are blending together as different media companies merge creating new ways of delivering a message.

On a purely message point of view, the new medias working together will give communicators entirely new ways of writing stories,” Halbert said.

Norris understands the impact that convergence has made in the field of communications as well as the Department of English and Communication. “It is very good for today’s communications. Every media source today, especially with the Internet being so popular, has been converging: audio, video, images, radio and on-air broadcast.

The class is about the closest thing to an honors course in the communications department; it is what those in the communications department would call a senior capstone course,” Norris said.

The course debuted last fall, and with student feedback, this year’s course objectives are more refined. However, Halbert believes that last year’s students “appreciated the experience, although they felt like they were worked to death, and they wished that they had gotten some more theoretical background.”

Senior English and communication major Rich Magda took part in the first convergence class. Magda’s group produced the story “Emoticon,” which was featured in the Fall 2003 issue of the Woodcrest Magazine in addition to creating a website and DVD that featured the short film. Magda said that convergence goes beyond the technicalities of combining different types of media there is a complexity behind its premise. “What we learned most importantly is that convergence is based in theory, and its practice involves much more than the smushing together of media forms,” Magda said.

The overall consensus with this class is that, although there is a lot of work involved within this course, it is very well worth the effort and the quantity of work that each student puts into the course. The amount of experience that the students have acquired, and will continue to gain out of this course, will be valuable to them after graduation. The students will also have portfolio pieces that demonstrate their ability to work in a converged environment.

MELISSA STEVEN STAFF WRITER MS727@CABRINI EDU

When students register for core requirements, some classes at Cabrini are on high demand at registration time. Mainly, it is the instructor teaching the class that drives students to register for a particular class.

For core requirements, Phyllis Bean, registrar, said that professors like Dr. James Hedtke, department Chairman of history and political science, Dr. Jolyon Girard, history and political science professor, Amy DeBlasis, Dr. Charles McCormick, dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Margaret McGuinness, department Chairman of religious studies and Dr. Leonard Primiano, associate professor of religious studies, are just some of the professors whose classes fill up quickly.

Bean said, “At the beginning of registration they are the first to go because they teach the classes to fulfill core requirements.” She also recommends students to register online in order to get the classes they most desire.

To fulfill a religion or a values and commitment requirement,

McGuinness’s classes, like Religion and the Civil Rights Movement or Faith and Justice are two classes that students find interesting. Meredith Detwiler, a senior English and secondary education major, took McGuiness’s Faith and Justice class for the first time this year and said, “In her class, she is able to bring history to life. Teaching has become secondhand nature to her, so much that she is able to focus on our understanding of what is presented. She is great with explanations and answering questions.”

McGuinness, who has taught at Cabrini for almost 20 years, said, “I’m offering the students a chance to think. I want it to be something different then just a traditional religion class from high school.”

Lynsey McStravick, a sophomore accounting major, had both Primiano and McCormick in her freshman year and said, “Dr. Primiano was an awesome teacher and I’m glad I had him, and Dr. McCormick was helpful about everything not just only with his class.” She took Primiano’s Search for Meaning class and McCormick’s Cross-Cultural Food Ways class.

Hedtke has been teaching at Cabrini for 31 years and still loves it. Hedtke said, “I like young people, they’re neat. It’s fun to be with young people because it’s what keeps me going and keeps me young.”

At the beginning of the semester, in his Survey of United States History 1780 to Present class, he tells his students that history is exactly like a soap opera.

He wants the students to stay interested throughout the class, so he tells history as though it was a story.

DeBlasis, who teaches Sem 100 classes like Coming of Age, College Success and English Composition said, “It all boils down to the fact that I love teaching and believe in the mission at Cabrini.” DeBlasis said, “I teach students to find out how they can make the world a more beautiful place. It’s a pretty great job.”

Enthusiasm such as that shows through a teacher and their work, making students feel like their teacher cares about them and the work they do. Mary Nguyen, 20, a senior business administration major who took DeBlasis’s Coming of Age and English 101 class, said, “I took Amy DeBlasis because she was easy to talk to, she would always remember me and would ask me how things were going even outside of school.”

These professors were all willing to sign in students who want to take their classes even after they are full. They did say that once the class gets completely full, depending on the classroom, they cannot sign anyone else in as not to take the individualized attention away from the students. These professors whose classes fill up quickly do so not just because they teach the core requirements but as Stefanie Ciarrochi, 21, a senior special and elementary education major, said, “A good teacher is someone who makes themselves available for not only their students, but any student that feels comfortable with them.”