Communications Fellows visit media organizations in Florida

Elon students with journalists and producers at WESH TV.[/caption]

Elon students at a writing seminar at the Poynter Institute, with writing coach Roy Peter Clark.[/caption]

Communications Fellows ready to go on the first day of the Florida course, in Orlando. With them, Ashley Pinney (left) and Vanessa Bravo (right).[/caption]

Left to right: Jacquee Wahler, director of external communications at Disney World, with students Melina Casados, Mariam Lopez-Rosales and Aneesha Smith.[/caption]As part of the course “The Fellows Experience,” 13 communications students traveled to Orlando this Winter Term to visit seven media organizations. They also participated in a writing seminar at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg with renowned writer and writing coach Roy Peter Clark.

During the second week of class, the Communications Fellows visited WESH TV (an NBC-affiliate owned by Hearst), the Amway Center (headquarters of the Orlando Magic team), the Poynter Institute, the Orlando Sentinel, strategic communications agency Fry Hammond Barr, social marketing agency IZEA, and production studio IDEAS.

The week concluded at Disney World, first with a Friday visit to Disney’s Public Affairs department (which includes its communications team), and with a Saturday day of fun at Magic Kingdom.

“During the whole week, this group of students kept the energy high and asked smart, appropriate questions at the different venues we visited,” said Assistant Professor Vanessa Bravo. “They were well prepared and very disciplined, too.”

“We receive students frequently at the Sentinel, but the January visit from Elon students is our favorite, because these students ask very good questions,” said John Cutter, associate editor at the Orlando Sentinel.

The 13 students were accompanied in this trip by professor Bravo and by Ashley Pinney, associate director of corporate relations at the School of Communications, who coordinated the logistics of the trip along with professor Naeemah Clark, director of the Communications Fellows program.