Dear Alumni and Friends,
The lease is signed, and the moving truck is ready. At the end of this week, we will be expanding the footprint of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications across Centennial Mall to the third floor of the Children’s Museum. We’re adding over 13,000 square feet dedicated to the Experience Lab, including space for our advertising and public relations agencies, Jacht and Buoy, and our new economic and community development-focused webzine, Heartland.
We have a lot of work to do to get ready for the fall, so if you are handy with a paintbrush and available next week, you are welcome to join the painting party. It’s going to take a few coats of paint to cover the primary colors currently on the walls! Thank you to our friends at Bailey Lauerman, Firespring, KidGlov and Maly Marketing for signing on as our first sponsors of our Agency Experience Labs. I’m looking forward to announcing additional sponsors soon!
Our partners are also investing time and talent into the launch of the Experience Labs. We have Professionals in Residence (PIRs) joining us from KidGlov, Mentor Collective, Ameritas, Nelnet, TRG Arts, KLKN-TV, KMTV, 10/11 News and Channel 8 News. We will confirm a few more PIRs before the start of the semester.
While not everyone can devote the four hours each week expected of our PIRs, our alumni near and far can get involved as online mentors for our students. By signing up for Husker Connect you can choose your commitment level and preferred area of engagement. Whether you are interested in a short-term or long-term mentorship or just want to share opportunities and internships with current CoJMC students, we would love to get you involved!
If you are interested in working with our students as a full time gig, we are hiring a technical director to oversee the new studio and newsroom as well as faculty in media production, media law and faculty affairs. These new staff and faculty positions will be essential to the launch of our new news program, Nebraska Nightly, and the expansion of Nebraska News Service, Unlimited Sports and KRNU while supporting the continued growth of our college.
I look forward to sharing additional details with you and getting feedback on our plans at an upcoming Drinks with the Dean event. Thank you to the alumni who came out for the happy hour in Minneapolis and New York City this week. We have local events scheduled for Lincoln and Omaha next month. If you don’t see your city on the schedule, don’t worry, we’ll be scheduling virtual events for the fall.
As always, you can email me directly if you have questions or want to set up a one-on-one chat.
Go Huskers!
Shari
