High schoolers explore communication majors at Montevallo

Published 11:54 am Friday, November 15, 2019

FROM STAFF REPORTS

More than 100 high school students from throughout Alabama got a chance to learn more about the University of Montevallo’s mass communication majors while touring the University’s state-of-the-art broadcast and production facilities on Nov. 1.

During the day, faculty in the Department of Communication held several breakout sessions in Strong Hall covering everything from gathering news story ideas and writing for newscasts to blog writing and newscast production.

“Exploring Mass Comm Day is great because it gets high school students on campus using our equipment and seeing our faculty in action. We know that simply getting a student on UM’s campus increases the likelihood that they’ll choose to come here,” said Dr. Bruce Finklea, associate professor of mass communication. “It’s a lot of fun to see students excited about the possibilities that will be available to them, if they choose to come to UM. This has been a great way to start mentoring the next generation of Mass Comm majors.”

The event proved popular among the students who attended, as it opened their eyes to the wide range of careers they could pursue with a degree in mass communication.

“We have classes very similar to these at Calera High School, and we want our students to understand that they can come here to Montevallo and make that their college major. Some of them don’t realize that these majors are available,” said Shelby County Schools Career Coach Keyla Handley. “When we told them about today, they were very excited to come and see what this program is like on a university level. We want them to understand what all is available at Montevallo. Any time we can expose them to those higher education offerings, we try to do that as much as possible.”