Longwood University Communication Studies

COMMLab: A Production Class Like No Other

By: Hunter Stinnett

Ever wonder what it was like to be part of an award-winning team? Students from COMMLab know. They produced the video that made it possible for Longwood University to win the 2019 best campus traditions award from the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA).

Debuting in the fall of 2017, the students of COMM 434 COMMLab have been helping community organizations by writing, shooting, and editing videos for them. Originally developed by Dr. Ryan Stouffer and Professor Jeff Halliday, COMMLab is a course that creates videos for clients in and around the Farmville area. Even the course number itself, COMM 434, is a nod to the Farmville community.

According to Dr. Stouffer, “COMMLab was created to give students hands-on experience communicating with clients, producing professional videos, and enhancing student’s professional portfolios.” One of the unique components of COMMLab is that students work primarily for nonprofit agencies in the Farmville community because they oftentimes do not have the funds or resources to have a video professionally made.

The Process

Something that makes COMMLab stand apart from other media production courses is that it is offered every semester. By no surprise, the spring 2020 section of COMMLab filled in just under 90 minutes.

With a cap of 12, the students are then broken into four different groups, they will work with on projects for the entirety of the semester. Each group completes four different projects of the course of the semester for different clients. After selecting the clients, student groups reach out and set up a meeting to discuss what the client is interested in having produced. And after a contract is signed, the students begin writing and filming the video.

A current COMMLab student, Miranda Farley (’20) said she is “thankful for the opportunity to gain this experience in a class because it helps prepare [her] for jobs after graduation.” While students in COMMLab have only produced videos to date, they hope to expand their offerings in future semesters based on client needs.

COMMLab Clients

To date, COMMLab has worked with over 62 different clients.

According to Professor Halliday, one of the most unique clients COMMLab has worked with was The Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation (VCBR). The VCBR works to help sexually violent predators recover and provide them with the opportunity to return to their communities. COMMLab created an employee recruitment video for this facility that is now featured on the main page of their website.

Another recent client is the Longwood University Athletics Department. COMMLab created a program for them called Lancer Central that features 30 different episodes about the different athletic teams at the university. COMMLab has also worked with Susan Sullivan, Director of the University Center and Student Activities, to create a video about Longwood’s tradition of The G.A.M.E. This particular video was submitted to NACA won the competition in February of 2019 where Longwood was awarded the Best Campus Traditions under 5,000 students. Sullivan remarked that she is glad Longwood offers a “great academic class that university offices can call upon in a time of need.” She also said that COMMLab “allows students the opportunity to participate and create a unique tangible video that has the potential to be award winning.”

Digital Media alumnus, Nicole Del Rosario (’19) reached out to Dr. Stouffer saying, “thank you for creating a course that helped prepare me for the professional world.” Other alum have also reached out and said that their employers were impressed by the camera experience and professional portfolio so soon after graduation. Dr. Stouffer stated that he is “happy to provide an opportunity for creative freedom to students while also helping them build a professional portfolio.”

Finally, this semester one group of COMMLab students was tasked with creating a new introductory video for our very own Communication Studies department, working with Dr. Alec Hosterman and his intern. The video is going to be used during recruiting events as well as posted across the department’s different social media accounts. And without further ado, here it is:

Broadcasting Their Way Into the Future

At the end of each semester, COMMLab live broadcasts the senior poster session for communication students who go through COMM 460 Communication Research. This year will be the second annual broadcast of this event, where different students will explain their research and highlight their results. Parents, alumni, and other community members will be able to live stream the poster sessions on the Longwood University Communication Studies YouTube channel. This year’s live session will be held on Tuesday, December 10, 2019, starting at 10:00 a.m. EST.

COMMLab is a production course like no other at Longwood University. This course gives students the ability to serve the larger community while also learning skills that most have to wait until they are in the profession to learn. Dr. Stouffer gave thanks to Dr. Naomi Johnson-Tsigaridas, who was department chair when this course was created, for believing in the program and what it has to offer to students. Current department chair, Jeff Halliday, says, “this is a class that serves the university’s greater mission of creating citizen leaders.”

Make sure to check out some of the different videos COMMLab has produced which are linked below.

1. Madeline’s House
2. Elwood’s Cabinet
3. Longwood Traditions: The G.A.M.E.

If you are interested in having COMMLab create a video for you, please reach out to Dr. Ryan Stouffer (stoufferrr@longwood.edu) or Professor Jeff Halliday (hallidayja@longwood.edu).

“Be bold in whatever it is you want to do” – Michael Durr

By: Hunter Stinnett

Michael Durr (’16), is doing exciting and unexpected things these days, from soccer coach to salesperson, to fashion model. However, before Michael got to where he is today, he was a division one student-athlete with a Public Relations concentration and minor in Business Administration.

Photo taken from @Michaelatleydurr on Instagram.

During his four years at Longwood, Michael was on the men’s soccer team, where two of those years he spent as captain. Michael said that being captain of the team, “forced me to hold myself to a high standard both on and off the field.” As a result of Michael being a leader both on and off the field, he was hand-selected to be a part of the Lancer Leadership Program. This program was led by Troy Austin, former Athletic Director at the university. The primary goal of this program was to mold and cultivate young leaders. Michael was also a member of the Communication Studies academic fraternity, Lambda Pi Eta. This fraternity, now called the is the National Communication Studies Honor Society, has specific academic requirements students must meet to be invited to join. Which are, to have completed 60 credit hours, completed 12 credit hours in the Communication Studies program, have a 3.0 overall GPA, and have a 3.25 GPA for all Communication Studies courses.

Photo taken from @Michaelatleydurr on Instagram.

Two years from graduating, Michael wears many different hats in his day-to-day life. He is a fulltime soccer coach, soccer trainer, and fashion model. Oddly enough, when Michael graduated he was first a salesperson for an application (app) development company for ten months. He then transferred to a small medical supply company where he did sales for 7 months. After working there, Michael was then promoted to Director of Sales. He held that management position for a little over a year before the company was sold in November of 2018.

Two months before the medical supply company was sold, Michael began modeling on the side. He was originally placed in New York with Muse Management. However, recently Michael signed with Ursula-Weidmann Models located in Atlanta, Georgia. Michael currently live in Mississippi where the modeling market is nowhere near what it is in New York so her typically has a gig every three weeks.

Photo taken from @Michaelatleydurr on Instagram.

A typical soccer day for Michael starts at the gym and ends on the soccer field. He hits the soccer field and does training and coaching from 2:30 pm to 9:30 pm, with personal training lessons starting at 2:30 and practice beginning at 5:30. He is currently coaching three different soccer teams.

Michael says that effective communication, branding, and marketing are the three biggest skills from his degree that he uses on a daily basis. Effective communication plays a large role when communicating with his team’s parents. He is able to get important information out in a clear and concise manner. Whereas branding and marketing have helped him grow his Instagram following. Michael learned that it is all about knowing your target audience and that brands are more likely to higher you when you have a large following. He then made the decision to change his Instagram from private to public and has since gained over 1,500 followers. Since his increase in followers he was able to work with brands like Hugo Boss and was offered a spot on a CBS TV show. Unfortunately, he cannot share which one (yet). But he did say “reality tv isn’t my thing.”

Photo taken from @Michaelatleydurr on Instagram.

As far as dream jobs go, Michael is not completely sure if where he is at now is his dream job. However, he does believe his dream job involves soccer since he has been training kids since he was fourteen years old. In regard to his modeling career, he has only been it for a year now. While he is not sure what exactly he wants from it, he does believe it will open something else up for him.

Michael’s advice to current and future COMM students is “just be bold in whatever it is you want to do.” If you would like to follow along on Michael’s journey, you can follow him on Instagram @Michaelatleydurr.

The COMMunity is On the Move!

By Hunter Stinnett

At the first all majors meeting for 2019, Department Chair, Jeff Halliday shared with current COMMunity students exciting news: the Communication Studies Department will be moving across campus into the new academic building beginning in fall 2020. Though CSTAC has been home to the department since 2009, the faculty was given an amazing opportunity to grow and be closer to the French studios.

The new academic building behind French Hall.

Halliday said the new building will, “Increase student-faculty engagement because the offices and classrooms will both be on the second floor of the building.” This way, students will no longer have to go to another floor in the building or across campus to talk with their professors: everyone will now be in one location.

Plans for the new academic building were a part of the 2015 Campus Master Plan and construction began in April of 2018. The new building is set to open in fall 2020 and has yet to be named. Many faculty and students are excited about the move since French Hall is where a majority of the Digital Media concentration classes are held. Many students make that dreaded run from CSTAC to French, or vice versa, in that short 10-minute transition between classes, will benefit. Sadly, future COMM students will not have to sprint the 7 minutes it takes to go between French and CSTAC.

Dr. Ryan Stouffer, Dr. Alec Hosterman, and Dr. Pam Tracy explore the new building.

Dr. Naomi Johnson is extremely excited for the new building and the opportunity for the two concentrations to work more closely together. Johnson stated, “I am really excited about the possibilities to develop collaborative classes between the concentrations.  For example, it would be wonderful to have a ‘PR Lab’ like we have ‘COMM Lab’ now, with the public relations students working in collaboration with the digital media students to promote the videos they create or to develop events that will be filmed.” Dr. Naomi said that this is just one example of the many ideas the department has come up with once the buildings are side by side.

The Department of Health, Athletic Training, Recreation, and Kinesiology (HARK) will also be using the building as a space for new equipment and labs. The second and third floors will have an area for collaborative learning spaces, offices for faculty, the Center for Academic Faculty Enrichment (CAFÉ), classrooms, student research, and study rooms.

A sneak peek of the second floor from inside the building.

While many alum might be worried about how the COMMunity will adjust after leaving CSTAC, the place Dr. Bill Stuart taught and impacted so many, Halliday reminds everyone: ‘the COMMunity is mobile.’ And, Dr. Naomi also gave a bit of teaser in saying that “Dr. Stuart started this major and he will always be with us in spirit, so it was important to have him come with us.”

With this news, how do you think the department should incorporate Dr. Stuart into the new building? And what accent color wall would you want the new COMM classrooms to have? The iconic green, or a new color? Place your comments below.