Event Spotlight: Communicatons & Media Panel

By Billy Cribley, FCRH '17

On Monday, April 13, Career Services and the Department of Communications & Media Studies are hosting a Communications & Media Panel at 6pm in the South Lounge at Lincoln Center. Seven FCLC alumni will speak at the panel, all of whom were in your shoes at one point or another. They have jobs at places like ABC World News Tonight, NBC News, Marvel Entertainment, Maximum Films, SNL, Fox News, Good Housekeeping, and the Meredith Viera Show. These panelists weren’t just students once, they were students from your school!

Caitlin O’Kane currently works at NBC, and the real kicker is her final semester at Fordham was just last spring! Her first internship with the company was at CNBC, which is NBC Universal’s business and finance network. From there, she was proactive about getting her resume out and doing the best job she could – and the rest is history. What I found really awesome about Caitlin’s story was the little bit she was able to tell me about the Page Program. Basically, the program organizes all of its members and gives them different assignments in the company. It’s incredibly competitive—around 16000 students a year apply and only about 2% are accepted. But once you’re in, you’re IN. All the pages compete amongst themselves for specific positions amongst the different branches, and serve out said positions for 3 months at a time. The program itself is a year long, but you’re able to leave at anytime should you want to apply for a job: obviously, being in NBC’s Page Program gives you a little leverage when it comes to getting a position at NBC. As Caitlin puts it, you are trained to handle interviews well, act professionally, be a good assistant, and know as much as you can about the company. There’s a lot more about the program Caitlin can talk to you about the panel so definitely stop by!

Christina Frasca works at Fox News Edge currently, which is the branch of Fox news that provides news content to Fox affiliates around the country and abroad. She serves as writer and a producer, so she does anything and everything from writing TV scripts to editing interviews and producing news packages. When she was a student at FCLC, she served as news Editor for the campus’ paper, The Observer. This just goes to show that it’s important to follow your passions! Find what interests you and go for it with all you have, no matter what anyone says. Christina also took Brian Rose’s internship seminar each semester, which taught her many of the skills that ultimately carried her to the different positions she held. If you have the opportunity, check it out!

Christine Kopaczewski interned at Good Housekeeping magazine her senior year at Lincoln Center, and was offered a freelancing job for a few months and then was offered a full-time position after graduation. Most of her time in school her was focused on other internships in the music industry until she branched out and decided she wanted to focus more heavily on media. This is why it’s so important for all of us to look for as many opportunities as we can! You never know what position you might find that was actually your calling all along. Don’t pigeonhole yourself into thinking you ever HAVE to do something; do what you love!

Elissa Dauria currently holds the position of Creative Executive at a company called Maximum Films, and she helps film studios and TV networks find books they want to transition into shows or movies. She graduated from FCLC in 2010 and held internships at places like New Line Cinema and Summit Entertainment. Having originally graduated with intentions of becoming a producer, her experiences with her different internships has allowed her to see countless other tracks that may even be a better fit for her than producing!

Look, guys, I know I might be forcing this whole “don’t pigeonhole yourself, go out and do as many internships as you can” deal, but that’s just because it’s the truth. I’m only a sophomore here, but I’m willing to bet there’s a bunch of you out there just like me who are terrified at the prospect of careers and finding employment after graduation. And we have a right to be scared. But we have the tools to combat the fear literally at our fingertips. Opportunities like this panel happen often at Fordham, and if you’re going to spend all this money for an education, make sure you’re making a good investment. Take the time to network with people and push yourself harder than anyone else has before. You can do it! So drop on by this panel and talk to these awesome people. They want to help.