Welcome to the Roy H. Park School of Communications, where critical thinking, intellectual rigor, and professional practice combine to nurture tomorrow's communication leaders and creative artists.
Communication techniques and technologies are among the most powerful tools for social change and personal empowerment. As professors and practitioners in this discipline, we take that responsibility seriously. A Park School education will offer you the solid conceptual foundations, impassioned discussions, practical hands-on skills, professional insights, and challenging real-world opportunities to develop your creative imagination, social conscience, and professional opportunities.
The field of communications is constantly transforming itself. You need to prepare yourself to work in careers that have not yet been invented. Yet, you'll want to leave with the skills and connections that will land you an immediate job or a spot in a top graduate program. We're the place for you. Innovation is in our DNA: our alumni have been among the first to invent new TV and film genres, new media platforms for entertainment and education, new economic models for journalism, and new strategies for promoting products and social initiatives. Whether you're interested in photography, cinematography, television, audio production, interactive multimedia, print journalism, strategic business communication -- or all of the above -- the Park School offers you the seamless blend of theoretical and performance-based learning that is the hallmark of excellence in communications education.
The Park School is a place where learning comes first. Our professors are effective and dedicated teachers whose first priority is students. You can take advantage of opportunities to work with them outside of the classroom on their research, their media projects, and in service to the community both locally and internationally. They'll know you on a first-name basis and can guide you through your academic and professional explorations. Because of their diverse backgrounds and passionate engagement in their respective fields, you'll be inspired to explore aspects of the dynamic communications field that you may never have considered.
From the moment you walk in the door, you'll be a full-fledged member of the Park learning community. You'll take courses in your major during your first semester. Interested in cinematography? You'll have hands-on access to the most sophisticated analog and digital equipment in the industry. Want to be an investigative newspaper reporter? The staff of the Ithacan will welcome you into its newsroom. Maybe you dream of being the next Tom Brokaw (or Jon Stewart)? The Park School's Emmy-winning Newswatch 16 is the place to begin your career. Are you great at dreaming up marketing campaigns and promotional media? Each year, our students in Ad Lab enter a national competition to develop an advertising campaign for a real client. Or perhaps you're interested in applying communication tools to improve education or organizational performance. Park's unique major in communication management and design offers courses in corporate communications, website and digital media design, and new learning technologies such as serious games.
We're one of the top undergraduate communications programs in the world and we excel in nurturing budding communicators. But we're also on the leading edge of research, artistic expression, and professional practice. We offer a professionally oriented master's degree that attracts students from around the world. A number of our faculty teach in our online professional certificate programs for communications and training managers, and run workshops on new media for working journalists. Our professors write books and scholarly articles, are invited to exhibit their creative work in galleries and film festivals around the world, speak at top industry gatherings and conferences, and are the writers and producers of award-winning programming for all types of media. With these connections, our faculty bring the world to you in our classrooms and labs. We also bring you to the world, with opportunities to spend a semester in our Los Angeles center, to study in our London or Washington, D.C., programs, or to take a short study tour with a faculty member.
You may expect me to do some bragging and probably wonder if you can really believe all of this. After all, I'm the interim dean. That's true … but I'm also a proud alumna (television-radio class of 1974). The outstanding education and support I received from the faculty here propelled me into graduate school where I was asked to teach courses in instructional TV when I was only 22. I'm not unusual -- I hear similar things from many of our alumni and their employers who report that IC grads are much better prepared and advance more quickly than their peers from other institutions. After I earned my Ph.D., I was fortunate enough to be invited back to serve on the faculty here at IC -- my dream job.
I've been here for 30 years and stay in touch with many of my former students who are happy to share their successes, to recruit our students for jobs and internships, and to come back to offer guest lectures. I still use the practical lessons from my classes and my work on IC's radio and TV stations in my work as a corporate communications consultant. I'm also an IC parent: my son, Evan, graduated from Ithaca College in 2008. Now that I've been asked to serve as interim dean for the 2009-10 academic year, many of my IC classmates have reached out to offer their support of me -- and of you. I know -- from all of these perspectives -- that IC is a wonderful place to grow and flourish.
I hope that you'll seize the opportunity to have the same exceptional experience that I had as a student here. We're small enough to know you. Big enough to challenge you. Diverse enough to stretch you. We've been in the communications education business for more than 50 years, not only adapting to, but leading the changes in our remarkable field. Will you join us in that journey?
I look forward to meeting you.
Diane Gayeski
Interim Dean
