Two Elon University School of Communications alumni presented sessions, one staff member won a Presidential Citation, and The Pendulum took home an Apple Award all at the College Media Association conference March 18-20 in New York.
Olivia Hubert-Allen ’09, now the deputy director of audience engagement at the Baltimore Sun, moderated and served as a panelist in a discussion titled “Take My Job, Please” that featured two other young professionals (younger than 30) with great jobs. The panel focused on how recent graduates can find impressive gigs immediately out of college. Hubert-Allen, formerly of the Virginian-Pilot, majored in journalism and worked as editor in chief of The Pendulum while a student at Elon.
Travis Lusk ’05, a director at VINDICO video services, then led two sessions the next day about Web analytics titled “Analyze This: Web analytics for beginners” and “Analyze That: Tips and Tricks to boost your Web traffic.” In the first presentation, Lusk explained the “basics of … analytics (in plain English)” and unveiled 10 “easy tools you can use immediately,” according to the session description in the conference program.
In the second presentation, Lusk discussed how to create “sticky content” and provided “tips on how to use video, social media and advertising as tools to keep people engaged and returning,” the session description said. Lusk worked as the general manager of WSOE 89.3 FM as a student at Elon.
Both presentations (in addition to a few others) were organized by Colin Donohue, the coordinator of student media in the School of Communications, who served as the chair of CMA’s New Media Committee.
Donohue also received a CMA Presidential Citation that recognized his work as the chair of the committee. The award is given at the discretion of the CMA president for “outstanding service to College Media Advisers and to student media across the nation.” He received the same honor at last year’s joint Associated Collegiate Press/CMA convention in Orlando, Fla., as well.
Donohue, who was given the 2010 CMA Honor Roll Adviser Award at ACP/CMA convention in Louisville for his efforts as adviser to The Pendulum, will continue to work with CMA on the newly formed Convention Programming Committee, which will soon begin booking sessions for the ACP/CMA convention in Chicago later in 2012.
Also at the conference, The Pendulum won a second-place Apple Award in the Best Facebook Page competition. Pendulum editors Kate Riley, Rebecca Iannucci, Kristen Case and Elizabeth Nerich attended the conference (and blogged about it) and accepted the award for the Pendulum.