Communication Week offers professional development, alumni connections

Students and faculty in the Radford University School of Communication (SOC) will engage with top professionals in their fields during the fifth annual Communication Week.

Communication Week will take place April 6 - 11. Over the course of the week, communication professionals, many of whom are RU alumni, will visit campus to engage students in discussions of current issues and events in their field.

"Communication Week is a chance for our students to learn about our field outside of the classroom, for faculty to reconnect with our alumni who attend, and for those alumni to get back to campus to see what has changed and reconnect with the RU community," said SOC Director Lynn M. Zoch.

Events kick off on Sunday, April 6 at 5 p.m. with the SOC Honors and Recognition Banquet in Muse Banquet Room. The best and brightest of the School will receive recognition for their hard work and dedication to their studies in the field.

On Monday, April 7, a Student Speaking Contest, sponsored by Lambda Pi Eta, the communication honorary, will be held in Heth 022.

In addition to alumni and faculty speakers, students will have an opportunity for career development training with events like "How to Ace the Interview," a panel by hiring professionals from Ad 2 Roanoke. The panel, co-sponsored by Ad 2 and the Radford University Ad Club, will be on Wednesday, April 9 at 5 p.m. in the Hurlburt Student Center Auditorium.

Communication Week wraps up on Friday, April 11, with two alumni panels in Heth 014. At 11 a.m., alumni from the advertising, public relations and communication studies concentrations will offer their professional perspectives. At 1 p.m., alumni from the journalism and production technology concentrations will have their turn.

"The stories these speakers tell our students about their own successes and failures, and the zigs and zags their careers have taken, encourage students and help them to not get discouraged if their job searches don't always work out exactly as they've planned," Zoch said.

For information about ticketing (required only for the banquet on Sunday) and a complete schedule of speakers and panels visit the School of Communication website.

The SOC produces some of Virginia's finest communication and media professionals. Five undergraduate concentrations are represented in the school: advertising, communication studies, journalism, production technology and public relations.

The school also offers a master's degree in Corporate and Professional Communication at the graduate level.