On Friday, Oct. 29, 2021, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Ronnie Green joined Dean Shari Veil and Co-Directors Jemalyn Griffin and Jill Martin to cut the ribbon on the College of Journalism and Mass Communications’ new Experience Lab.
Beginning in 2020-2021, more than 75 students, faculty, staff, alumni and industry partners came together to chart a vision for the future of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at UNL. The vision was grounded in the college’s “Do From Day One” tradition and articulated in the first aim of the college’s strategic plan to launch a college-wide experiential learning lab.
Soon after the strategic plan was ratified by the faculty in May 2021, faculty, staff and students from across the college dug in and got to work on what would become the Experience Lab. In the Lab, students, alongside faculty liaisons and professional mentors, work four to six hours per week in one of the college’s student-led media outlets or agencies. The Experience Lab provides students with professional media or agency experience while serving the state by telling stories for and about Nebraska. Some of the programs are long established in the college, and some are new to provide students with experience across the college’s many disciplines. The Experience Lab programs are:
- Nebraska News Service: A statewide wire service providing coverage of state government and community news to more than 100 media outlets across the state
- Nebraska Nightly: A broadcast television news show telling stories of importance to the UNL campus and Lincoln community
- 90.3 KRNU: The campus radio station providing news, sports, entertainment and music to the UNL campus and community
- Unlimited Sports: A center dedicated to reporting on all Nebraska sports for print, broadcast and beyond
- Jacht: A full-service advertising and public relations agency providing services to Nebraska businesses
- Buoy: A mission-driven advertising and public relations agency providing support for Nebraska non-profits
- Heartland Webzine: An online magazine focused on telling stories of economic and community development in Nebraska
Currently, more than 90 students are enrolled in the Experience Lab as an elective. Beginning in the fall of 2022, students will be required to enroll in the Experience Lab for at least three semesters during their college career growing the program to 600-700 students.
Veil appointed assistant professors of practice Griffin and Martin to co-direct the new program. Griffin and Martin were selected for their professional experience working in advertising and public relations and journalism and broadcasting and their leadership of existing experiential learning programs in the college. In addition to co-directing the Experience Lab, Martin serves as the faculty liaison for the Nebraska News Service and Griffin serves as the faculty liaison for Jacht and Buoy. Additional faculty were tapped to serve as faculty liaisons to each of the programs, providing advice and guidance to student leadership.
Over the summer of 2021, the college secured additional space for the Experience Lab, identified the first student leads for each program and engaged professionals-in-residence to mentor students.
“One existing program, Jacht, was already outgrowing its space in the Lincoln Haymarket,” Griffin said. “We knew we were going to need more space to support the growing the Experience Lab.”
Working with other faculty and a local realtor, Griffin identified a potential space on the third floor of the Lincoln Children’s Museum. The 13,000 square foot space was formerly the home of offices for the Nebraska Historical Society and summer programs for the Lincoln Children’s Museum.
“The space was perfect,” Veil said. “Well, perfect in size, layout and proximity to Andersen Hall. But we knew it was going to need a lot of paint and elbow grease to get it ready.”
The college signed a lease for the space, now known as The Agency, on Aug. 1, 2021. With just three short weeks until students arrived for the fall 2021 semester, the faculty and staff of the college came together and rolled up their sleeves to paint, move in furniture and computers and get the space ready for students.
While securing additional space, Veil and the faculty liaisons laid the foundation of the program. The faculty liaisons sought applications for and identified student leads for each program. During the summer, the leads engaged in leadership training hosted by Keri Mesropov, president of TRG Arts in Denver, Colorado. Since then, the 13 student leads have been working to develop the policies, processes and workflows that will support content development in all the programs.
Meanwhile, Veil worked with local media outlets and agencies to recruit professionals-in-residence to mentor students in the program. Thirteen organizations donated paid staff time for industry professionals to commit four hours per week to supporting students. The inaugural professionals-in-residence are Keri Mesropov, TRG Arts; Kelley Peterson, Kidglov; Derek Hernandez, Mentor Collective; Beau Poehlman, Ameritas; Randy Hawthorne, Nelnet; Dirk Chatelain, the Omaha World-Herald; Stephanie Croston, Seward County Independent; Andrew Ward, Lincoln’s Channel 8 News, KLKN-TV; Mike’l Severe, NRG Media; Ryan Dobesh, Nebraska Public Media; Serese Cole, KMTV Channel 3; Shaun Cummins, KLKN-TV Channel 8; Geoffrey Roth, KMTV Channel 3; and Mikel Lauber, 10/11 News, KOLN.
Veil also secured sponsorships for The Agency, bringing the Nebraska advertising and public relations community directly into the space. Agency sponsorships include a financial commitment over five years to support the space and the students working there and the opportunity to design their sponsored room to match the look and feel of the sponsoring agency.
Greg Andersen, CEO of Bailey Lauerman, explained why his company chose to sponsor The Agency.
“Creating more experience-qualified talent to come into our industry is of critical importance, not just to Bailey Lauerman, but to the broader advertising and public relations field in the state,” he said.
Ten area agencies have signed on to sponsor spaces in The Agency, including Bailey Lauerman, Firespring, Swanson Russell, OBI Creative, Pixel Bakery, Agent, Maly Marketing, KidGlov, Look East and Revolution Wraps.
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The Agency is home to Jacht, Buoy and Heartland Webzine.
“This is just the beginning,” Veil said. “As we grow to more than 600 students, we will be adding new programs and more spaces to support the Experience Lab.”
Plans are already well underway for some of the additional Experience Lab spaces. UNL alum Phil Perry has committed support for a new multimedia lab and photography studio in The Agency to be completed in January 2022.
Thanks to generous donations from the Donald and Lorena Meier Foundation and the Nebraska Broadcasters Association, the college will build an integrated newsroom and broadcast studio on the second floor of Andersen Hall. The studio will be home to Nebraska Nightly and the Nebraska News Service. Construction is scheduled for completion in August 2022.
The current dilapidated television studio will be converted into a state-of-the-art sports media center for Unlimited Sports in January 2022.
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“As part of the university’s N2025 strategic plan, we want every student to have an experiential learning opportunity in their college career,” Green said. “The College of Journalism and Mass Communications is leading the way.”
The new Experience Lab in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications has brought together students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and industry partners to create a college-wide program that will offer every student the opportunity to engage in experiential learning during their college career.
“I’m incredibly proud of the work that has been done by the entire CoJMC community to launch the Experience Lab,” Veil said. “But this is just the beginning. I can’t wait for what’s next.”
