Communication Majors: 5 Places to Build Your Portfolio at Florida Tech
If you’re a communication major at Florida Tech and you aren’t building up a portfolio on campus, you’re doing it wrong. It’s as simple as that. Don’t even try to argue because I’ve already heard the same old excuses:
“There aren’t any opportunities out there.”
Wrong.
“Well, everyone is just looking for science and engineering students.”
Wrong.
“The skills of a communication major aren’t needed at this school.”
Wrong – super wrong. So utterly wrong it hurts my eyes when I reread it.
Yes, our School of Arts and Communication is one of the smallest at this university. Yeah, our curriculum focuses on covering a wide range of topics as opposed to specializing in just one. And sure, the other departments are usually busy hogging the spotlight with their latest and greatest-s.
Contrary to your belief, I didn’t just list the sorrows of being a communication major at Florida Tech. No, I just listed your three biggest advantages as a communication major looking to build a portfolio at this school.
A small department means small class sizes. Small class sizes mean everybody knows everybody – from classmates to professors to department heads. It means you have contacts. A general overview of everything in our field doesn’t make you useless in a real-world setting. It makes you versatile, something I’ve learned to be essential in my work experience. Finally, it isn’t our job to be the subject of a news headline. It’s our job to write that headline. Other people doing great things means we always have a story to write here.
You need SOMETHING to show a potential employer, and you can start writing that something right now. It doesn’t matter if it comes in a work-study, college role or internship position – you just need to do it. Here are five places a communication major can build their portfolio at Florida Tech:
Department of Marketing and Communications
Let’s start where I started: Florida Tech Marketing and Communications. These guys are ALWAYS looking for writers. Blogging, producing content for the school website, working on prospective student admissions magazines – these are just some of the ways your skills as a communication major will be put to use here.
Athletic Communications
While technically an extension of marketing and communications, this one deserves its own spot. If you’re a communication major who’s into sports, Athletic Communications is your dream job. Here you’ll help Ryan Jones and his staff cover all 22 of Florida Tech’s NCAA sports teams by writing post-game stories, recording statistics, putting together press releases and much more.
This Florida Tech Life
This one is somewhat the oddball of the group – but in a very good way. This Florida Tech Life began as a course project for Dr. Petersen in the Publishing and the Internet class. The assignment was to create an original podcast capturing a small segment of life at the university. The project was such a success that Dr. P opened This Florida Tech Life to the campus community, allowing everyone to tell their own unique stories about life at this university.
The Crimson
As a communication major, you NEED to write for The Crimson, Florida Tech’s student-run newspaper. And I’m not just saying that because I’m on staff. I’m saying that because being able to tell a story that is as clear and accurate as it is interesting is an invaluable skill to have in this field. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t write for your school high school paper – I didn’t. The experience is what matters.
WFIT
The running joke in the communication department is that all communication majors will end up working for WFIT, Florida Tech’s on-campus radio station, at some point or another. That’s not to be taken negatively – this place is just that awesome. We’re talking about working on radio shows, podcasts, public service announcements and all the other things that go into running a radio station. Oh yeah, you also get to meet and talk to all the bands/musicians that are constantly dropping by the station.
