Off

By Iris Serrano
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18) and Jack Moody (StratComm’24)

Andrea Davis was already interested in the 91������ when she arrived on campus for J-Day last fall. 

The chance to explore both the campus and the fast-changing discipline of journalism made it easy for the high school senior to picture herself as a student here. 

Davis took a class in broadcast journalism at Grandview High School, which taught her more about the field and inspired her to attend J-Day—an annual celebration of high school journalism by the Colorado Student Media Association—at CMCI in October.

She has since committed to attend 91������, where she plans to pursue a major in media studies. 

“I learned a lot from the sessions and speakers—like the different markets, and the preparation that is required,” Davis said. “There were also lessons about the intention behind every story that gets covered, and how you have to advertise and carry yourself.”

Triumphant return to 91������

J-Day is a daylong conference and celebration of student media—not just newspapers, but yearbooks, magazines and other publications. When it came to campus in October, it was the first time J-Day had been held in 91������ in more than 20 years.

Organizers are now planning for J-Day’s return to 91������ this fall following a hugely successful showcase of the college and its journalism offerings—including a world-class alumni network and the award-winning student media organizations last year. Shelby Javernick, director of student recruitment and outreach at CMCI, is among those leading the charge.

“J-Day is such an exciting event for students who don’t see either college or 91������ as an option to understand that CMCI is this very welcoming space,” she said. “I think one of the things I most enjoyed seeing was students connecting with our faculty, and understanding there are so many opportunities for mentorship here. 

“And I’m excited for the students who are coming back next year, who will get to build connections with their team and bring back their knowledge and community to their schools.” 

At last year’s event, students heard directly from industry and academic experts who discussed topics like social media, generative artificial intelligence and career readiness. Some of the most popular sessions included a panel featuring representatives of 91������ student media organizations, a career prep session with 9News personalities, and multiple talks about sports journalism. Hundreds of students also attended tours of the campus, CMCI studios and academic spaces, and the campus’ sports media operations. 

By the numbers

1400 +
Students attended J-Day in 2024

2001
Last year J-Day took place in 91������

50
Schools sent students to J-Day

208 miles
Farthest distance traveled to attend (Aspen High School)

46
Total sessions available for students

10
Sessions led by faculty, staff or alumni

911
Students filled out information cards to learn more about CMCI

35.1%
Seniors who attended J-Day and applied to 91������

‘Continuously blown away’

One popular session at J-Day featured sophomore Leopold Riviera IV, an aspiring sports journalist, interviewing Robert Barba (Jour’04), an editor on the Wall Street Journal’s U.S. news team and a member of CMCI’s advisory board.  

Be involved

J-Day’s success last year was largely a result of alumni participation from professionals working in news, social media and other communication-related disciplines. If you would like to volunteer your services, contact   Shelby Javernick.

Barba seemed as impressed with his interviewer as he did the dozens of students who turned out to hear him talk about his career path and the evolving field of journalism.

“I’m continuously blown away by people who are younger, smarter and more articulate than I was at that age,” Barba said. “It’s affirming to connect with younger people who are excited about news. The industry is going to look a lot different for them than it did for me at their age.” 

Barba, who grew up in the Denver metro area and attended 91������ as a first-generation student, had instant rapport with the students. 

“The fact that he was in their shoes at one point allows them to connect more,” said Rivera, also a first-generation student. “I think when you have a sense of connection, you’re more drawn to attend CU or any other university.”

Despite being only a few years older than the attendees, Rivera was amazed at the students’ drive and passion for journalism. Hearing from someone like Barba and others will encourage them to pursue their goals

“I never had connections to other journalists until I got to college,” Rivera said. “I think if I was at J-Day, it would have given me more reassurance.”

Faculty also led workshops for the students, which touched on everything from social media to documentaries. In a sociology and sports journalism session led by Ever Figueroa, an assistant professor of journalism, students practiced pitching stories related to sports and developing them into actual pieces. 

He said he was surprised at the students’ enthusiasm—many showed up early, sat in the front rows and were excited to participate. 

“J-Day is a great opportunity to preview the college environment,” Figueroa said. “Students were afforded an opportunity to use their own self-interests as the basis for a news story and learn about how to succeed in the business.” 

Among the alumni who students heard from was Savannah Sellers (Jour’13), anchor for NBC News’ Morning News Now, who gave the keynote address from the network’s New York headquarters. Many may have recognized her from Stay Tuned, NBC’s Snapchat news show for younger audiences. 

“Exploring journalism as a career opportunity can lead you to so many fantastic things in your life, and incredible opportunities,” she told the audience. “It is a fun, rewarding, fulfilling path that is only getting more interesting, no matter if it’s changing. Also, I will say that 91������ was a fabulous place to study it.”

That certainly rang true for students like Davis. 

“Having the opportunity to be on campus was eye-opening, in the sense that I got to imagine what it could be like if I attended,” she said.

Off

Students across CMCI find ways to bring together their personal interests and academic pursuits. Since the college’s founding, we have regularly showcased this diverse collection of student work.

Lauren Arabia (StratComm’24)

Audrey Vanderpool, Owen Hartmann, Devon Walsh, Lexi Legeer, Mateo Perez-Lara, Lisa Fox (StratComm’24)

Javan Bair, journalism

Haley Mordini (MStratComm’21)

Alyssa Hill (MJour’24)

Off

By Iris Serrano and Hannah Stewart (Comm’19)
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

From classroom to career

Alumni connections, networking opportunities and unique coursework give CMCI students access to incredible internships. A few recent examples:

Luis Licon (PolSci’24)

Licon hopes to work in environmental planning and law, so minors in both communication and environmental design were ideal supplements to his political science degree. This combination of studies helped him land internships not only in media, with KGNU, but also in politics for Colorado’s House of Representatives and Gov. Jared Polis’ communications team.

“I was able to talk and connect with representatives, even outside of politics, and it will always be one of the most memorable times I’ve had.”

Matthew Miranda (Comm, PolSci’24)

Miranda worked as a legislative intern for the Colorado House Democrats and also completed an internship for U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper.

“Communication helps you understand where to find information, and how to disseminate it. It also helps you write clearly and define the message you want to convey to clients. Those lessons from my classes really helped me during my internships.”

Madelyn Heath (Jour’23, MA’24)

Heath interned as a writer for her local newspaper, the Mason County News.

“We learn about the industry in class, but being immersed in a newsroom made me think about what else goes into a paper or a broadcast: Everybody has a purpose. The journalism world is very fast-moving. At CU, we take a variety of classes that make us really versatile in a newsroom.”

Alex Roller wasn’t sure an internship with Snarf’s Sandwiches would be her bread and butter. But when her professor encouraged her to apply for the competitive advertising position, she set aside her hesitation and threw her hat in the ring.

Today, Roller (StratComm’24) is a marketing coordinator with the sandwich company, which has stores in Colorado, Texas and Missouri. Her day-to-day with the in-house Snarf’s marketing team builds on the design, event planning and social media work she did as an intern.

“Everything that I’ve learned in my advertising courses has transferred over seamlessly,” Roller said. “The biggest thing I learned in school that I’ve carried over to my work is the importance of communication skills and how to reach your target audience.”

At CMCI, students land coveted internships thanks to the college’s unique curricular emphasis, the involvement of alumni in attending recruiting events and providing mentorship, and industry-active faculty who put their networks to work in helping students find opportunities. Roller credited Morgan Young, an assistant teaching professor, with putting the Snarf’s opportunity on her radar. As president of Young Ideas, Young has worked with clients such as Nissan, General Motors, Bank of America, NASCAR, Visa and Walmart.

“I wouldn’t have a job and be where I was if Morgan didn’t mention the internship,” Roller said. “My biggest piece of advice would be to just take new opportunities and run with them—it’ll benefit you in the long term.”

Roller’s story isn’t unique, said Brandi Bradshaw-Reyes, assistant director of advising, internships and student professional development. Most students enter college without a clear idea of their career paths, discovering what drives them as they take courses, meet people and complete internships. Bradshaw-Reyes said that’s something she tells students unsure of where to interview or whether to accept an internship offer.

“When you’re getting your first internship, it’s going to teach you what you like and what you don’t like,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of students who end up finding the role they want to work in once they graduate or are offered full-time roles.”

Plenty of those roles, of course, come from connections to alumni. Bradshaw- Reyes said alumni are regular participants at major events, like career fairs, as well as in the classroom.

“Navigating the job market as a new graduate is challenging. Having alumni serve as mentors is an amazing experience for students,” Bradshaw-Reyes said.

Off

By Hannah Stewart (Comm’19)

After leaving several sticky notes on the windshield, Matt Solari finally met the dude who lived in the ambulance.

Solari, a media production major, was working with a team to document van life in 91������, and quickly ran into a problem: They didn’t know anyone who lived in a van. Their only lead was Solari’s neighbor, Alec Kolodziejczyk, who lived in the ambulance parked down the street.

Getting him to participate was the first breakthrough for the team after many leads fell short. But their perseverance was rewarded in the spring semester, when 91������ Van Life was nominated in the short/long form nonfiction category of the 2024 Heartland Student Emmy Awards. Additionally, in the summer, the film was nominated for the Most Inspirational Film Award from the Oregon Documentary Film Festival.

“I was in the middle of a frantic day when I got a text from my professor saying, ‘Congratulations, you’ve been nominated for a regional Emmy Award,’ and I immediately called my parents to tell them about it,” he said. “This was the first time when I was really able to see a project through from start to end and have it turn out roughly like what I intended at the beginning.”

Solari produced the film for a course called Documentary and Beyond, co-taught by Ross Taylor, associate professor of journalism, and Pat Clark, assistant professor of critical media practices. By collaborating across disciplines, students were encouraged to see the documentary film process from both a journalist’s and a filmmaker’s perspective.

‘Really beautiful and well done’

“Their film taps into a trend many explore in Colorado, throughout the West and beyond. So, it’s a relatable experience that many can connect with,” Taylor said of Solari’s project. “And the cinematography in the film was really beautiful and well done.”

What Solari loved most about the course was having an entire semester to fully flesh out and produce a documentary. After a few rounds of speed-dating-like pitching, he recruited fellow CMCI students Wyatt Martinez, Braxton Fish and Carlos Franco to work with him and explore what draws people to van life.

“I’m interested in the human story and being able to bring someone’s to a larger audience,” Solari said. “Seeing this whole process as a journey changed my mind on what documentary is and how the film reveals itself as you’re making it.”

Solari cast a wide net looking for candidates, and found that some, like Kolodziejczyk—a PhD candidate in chemistry at 91������—see van life as more affordable. Others choose the lifestyle for the freedom and flexibility that comes with it.

But while searching for his subjects, Solari heard “no.” A lot. Even in the case of Kolodziejczyk, Solari had to sell the idea of bringing a film crew into his home.

“I got a lot of rejection—it was a very humbling process,” Solari said. “I talked to about 20 people who were interested, but didn’t have the time or didn’t take me seriously. It was all about celebrating the small victories—and when they started adding up, it gave me confidence to keep going.”

Oscar cred

The team’s next victory came when van lifer Deb Hoak joined the production. Hoak’s participation was particularly exciting for Solari, since she appeared briefly in the Oscar-winning film Nomadland. Now, she was on his set. 

“I was really impressed with Matt, particularly his work ethic and how he would routinely try to reach out to people,” Taylor said. “He’s a good example of somebody who persevered through that initial difficulty of finding somebody, and succeeded. It takes time and some amount of doggedness and perseverance in storytelling, and this group embodied that.”

Solari and his team had help from both their peers and professors as they presented new iterations of their film. As a class, they brainstormed ways to film dynamic interviews in small spaces and helped them choose clips to streamline the story. 

With one more year to complete his undergraduate degree, Solari is already working on his next big project—a film about environmental sustainability for his honors program. He’s spending the whole academic year following a local farmer to produce another film he’s proud of. 

“As a filmmaker, you get fixated on a topic,” he said. “I’m really excited to work on it, and getting recognition with the Emmy nomination gives me a lot of fuel for future projects.” 

Off

By Hannah Stewart (Comm’19)

Crossing the pond

The Consumer Insights course is new to the college, as is another London program led by information science faculty. During the Ethnography and Design of Making Data Strange course, eight students studied international data while visiting hot spots like Bletchley Park and Warner Bros. Studios.

“We really wanted to make sure we were offering something truly new, with learning objectives that would be best served by being abroad—not just taking something in our existing curriculum and teaching it in a different location,” said Amy Voida, associate professor.

Those programs join CMCI’s long-standing International Strategic Communication course, which is held in Paris and Amsterdam. That course runs directly before Consumer Insights, allowing students to take both courses and gain additional experience abroad.

Britons drink more than a billion cups of tea every day—it’s the national beverage—but English youths aren’t sipping as much as their elders. Last June, 13 students from the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design set off across the globe to learn why.

“London is where account strategy was invented. It’s the hub of advertising for Europe and beyond,” said Morgan Young, an assistant teaching professor of advertising who is leading the study abroad program. “What we’re prioritizing here is learning from industry professionals.”

All students studying advertising strategy have to take the Consumer Insights course. In London, they tour advertising agencies, tea companies and, of course, cultural landmarks. The immersive three-week program culminates in the development of campaigns.

Getting firsthand experience

Junior London Selah said her favorite experience was visiting Mintel, a global market research firm.

“Listening to someone’s experience and seeing the day-to-day life of what it would be like to work in one of these agencies is really helpful,” she said.

Selah was an engineering student before switching her major to strategic communication at CMCI, which she said allowed her to challenge herself creatively while still using her analytical skills. The study abroad program gave her a better feel for the field while validating her decision to pursue a new professional path.

For senior Emily Iliff, the agency tours were exciting, but equally important was connecting with her peers.

“I’m very impressed by the students who attended, and it speaks a lot to CMCI and the APRD department itself,” she said. “There are people who are more creatively inclined, then there are people who are very keen with numbers. With our combined talents, we’ve become kind of a superpower.”

For Selah’s final project, she worked with a group to create a tea brand, including developing marketing plans and building engagement strategies targeting 18- to 28-year-olds. Visits to advertising and research agencies—including firms that work on brands like PG Tips and Yorkshire Tea—were instrumental in understanding how to create the right messaging and target their campaigns effectively.

“Visiting different agencies and getting real-world experiences has prepared me for what I might see when looking for jobs after graduation,” Selah said of her time in the United Kingdom. “I enjoyed being able to apply what I learned on an actual project.”

Off

By Iris Serrano

As volunteers for the 91������-based KGNU community radio station, Juanita Hurtado and Jack Armstrong were trained to be compliant with federal broadcasting regulations.

What they did not learn was how to run a station with total creative freedom.

It’s certainly a lesson they’ve learned since taking leadership roles at Radio 1190. In the past year, the station—formally known as KVCU 1190 AM—captured numerous awards for radio features, reporting and podcasting while growing the news team from a handful of volunteers to more than 30 regular participants.

A big part of the increase in student involvement came from Armstong’s experience as a senior strategic communication major in the public relations track.

“The biggest strategy for me has been learning about promotions and what makes them effective, so I went to classes and pitched Radio 1190,” Armstrong, the station’s news director, said.

Radio 1190 now offers news broadcasts each weekday during the academic year, along with daily student-curated music programming. The station also has expanded to include a featuring news, blogs and podcasts showcasing student-created visuals and music.

The station’s growth isn’t just in its numbers or programming. Iris Berkeley (Jour’01), whose career in media and communication has included radio production, hosting and DJing, was involved with 1190 as a student. Today, she is back as its operations manager and is impressed by the station’s commitment to diversity.

Building a community

“This isn’t just a radio station—it’s a community,” Berkeley said. “We want to be committed to making sure everybody on the campus is not only welcomed but finds their place here.”  

For Hurtado, the station’s assistant news director and a junior majoring in journalism, inclusion comes through her radio segments, which began incorporating Latin American music to bring visibility to that community.  

While she was nominated for multiple awards over the past year, the impact her Spanish-language segments created brought her the most joy. Hurtado shared that Keyana Simone, faculty director of student media, “told me that while training new DJs, some of them said that because they heard my shows in Spanish, they wanted to start shows in Japanese and Polynesian.”  

Unlike Berkeley, the station’s current news directors aren’t interested in careers in radio—Armstrong hopes to be a production manager, and Hurtado wants to be a freelance writer. But they recognize the broad applicability of the skills students develop by working in radio—whether storytelling, hosting, website maintenance and development, social media, or community engagement.  

“We want to make sure students develop not only the skills to earn them jobs, but also awards that prove to recruiters the quality of their work,” Hurtado said.  

It’s a vision she shares with Armstrong.  

“I have a very distinct goal—that when people see Radio 1190 on a resume, it will attract recruiters,” Armstrong said. “We do have some national distinctions already, but I want to get to the point where people get an interview or a callback because Radio 1190 has that recognition.”

Off

By Hannah Stewart (Comm’19)

In high school, Zoey Georgeades was like any other student: She went to class, hung out with friends, was involved in extracurriculars like yearbook and loved jamming out to her favorite tunes. Except, unlike other students, some of her favorite tunes were her own. Georgeades (Jour’24) didn’t just rock out in her room—she was working with a producer and had plans to move to Los Angeles to start her singer-songwriter career.

And then, COVID hit. With travel, and most aspects of life, severely limited because of lockdowns, she shifted gears and decided to give higher education “the good old college try.” Inspired by her love of music in concert with her background in yearbook—which sent her to the Colorado Student Media Association’s annual J-Day event—Georgeades decided to study journalism at the 91������. That, along with her minor in communication, gave her a fresh perspective on her passion of producing music.

“It’s been a very interesting time learning to be a musician and influencer while getting a degree,” she said. “My studies have pushed me to improve my communication in general, and that’s impacted my songwriting, making me very calculated.”

During her time in 91������, she served as the Panhellenic vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, and joined student media organizations. As a staff writer, and later arts and entertainment editor, for , she has written a variety of stories covering the 91������ music scene. Not only has she been able to connect with and interview musicians, she’s become more confident in herself.

“Hearing what they’ve had to say and go through has been really interesting,” Georgeades said. “Networking and getting comfortable to go alone to concerts to cover them has really broken me out of my shell, which is really important in both music and journalism.”

Her experiences in the classroom have been just as fulfilling—she said it’s been fascinating to learn about the rhetorical and philosophical sides of communication, which have pushed her to think more critically about the messages she puts out into the world and what it means to have integrity as both a musician and a journalist.

“As communication people, we should be the best, but often, we’re the worst,” Georgeades said.

  “Word choice is everything. CMCI has taught me to be very clear and direct, and very open minded.”
Zoey Georgeades (Jour'24)

Her network has proven invaluable throughout her time in CMCI. She said Keyana Simone, faculty director of student media, and other professors have always been supportive and helpful sounding boards, giving her the confidence to pursue both music and journalism.

For Georgeades, music transcends language and it, like journalism, is ultimately a tool for bringing people together. She hopes as she moves forward in her career—which she plans to start this fall in Los Angeles—she will be able to create a community using these passions.

“Whether it’s through music journalism or music production, I’m excited to put my all into it,” she said.

Off

Off

By Joe Arney
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

Tips for aspiring reporters

When he worked in Lubbock, Texas, covering Texas Tech, Brent Schrotenboer admitted he didn’t appreciate how cool of a college town it was, and all the activities it had for residents.

That sort of thing can be hard to tell with your nose to the grindstone. Schrotenboer said his willingness to work hard is why he’s become a national reporter with USA Today, but admitted his tunnel vision prevented him from enjoying the stops he’s had on the way.

“It’s important to find balance, but you also gotta remember that the only way to get ahead is work really hard,” he said.

He shared a few other tips with students who want to work in journalism:

• ����ٷɴǰ����£�Ƿ�. Schrotenboer’s first two jobs in newspapers came from the network he started to build as a student. CU alumni and brothers Tracy and Troy Renck, now a Denver Post sports columnist, gave Schrotenboer leads on his first two jobs that kicked off his career in Louisiana and Yuma, Arizona. “From there, it was off to the races,” he said.
• Read. And not just your subject area. Schrotenboer prefers books about history or novels to sports books: “Reading broadens your horizons, and it also makes you a better writer. Things kind of rub off by osmosis.”
• Be original. So many news websites today just aggregate content, as opposed to landing actual scoops, “which comes from getting interviews, digging into documents and public records,” Schrotenboer said. “You don’t see enough original reporting out there.”

Any reporter who’s been in news long enough knows the heart-stopping, sweaty-palmed moment when a public figure holds up your story in a press conference and says something to the effect of, “Now, we need to talk about something that was in the paper this morning.”

Earlier this spring, it’s a moment Brent Schrotenboer (Jour’96) endured while watching one of Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders’ press conferences. That week, Schrotenboer, an investigative sports reporter with USA Today, published a piece examining Sanders’ unique recruiting strategy and to prospective players.

“It’s sort of a moment of truth, when he brings up your story in front of everybody,” Schrotenboer said. “Because if there’s a single inaccurate thing in there, I’m about to hear about it—like, maybe he went on a visit that I couldn’t find a record of, and that the school didn’t even know about. But he didn’t dispute any of it, so it was sort of a sigh of relief.”

Instead, Coach Prime explained his strategy on how he attracts scholarship athletes—a story Schrotenboer said he tried to get for a week before finally publishing.

Chasing what’s new

His coverage of Coach Prime and the Buffs is not critical, he said, but open minded. “There’s nothing wrong with trying new things and zigging while everybody else is zagging. With the recruiting thing—the jury’s out as to whether it will work, but it’s very different, and I like that he’s trying new things and trying to exploit the transfer portal, NIL and so on.”

Last season was like an extended homecoming for Schrotenboer, who said he attended almost all 12 Buffaloes games as he covered a coach who generated as many headlines for his sheer popularity as his willingness to innovate on and off the field.

But landing the “Coach Prime beat” has nothing to do with having attended the 91������. Instead, he said, it was about working hard and never turning down an opportunity—which is how he got his first job, as the sports editor of a small paper in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

“I was a big baseball fan, and thought I could travel with a team and cover all 162 games a year,” Schrotenboer said. “But my career took a few different turns as I was offered opportunities in college football and more investigative work. A lot of people coming out of college have this fixed idea of what they want to do, some pro team they want to cover, but it almost never works out that way.

  “I’m so happy with where my career turned out. But it’s not where I had ever imagined myself, so I think it’s important to always say, yes, and to be open minded.”

Brent Schrotenboer (Jour’96), investigative reporter, USA Today

Leading amid industry challenges

That’s not just advice for starting out, either. As the news industry has contracted, Schrotenboer has had to embrace some storytelling techniques more familiar to a younger generation, like writing an article from viral videos on social media. A feature he wrote on the Prime Time: Public Performance and Leadership class was cobbled together entirely from videos created by Sanders and the influencers on his team; in April, he took a turn delivering a lecture as part of the course.

Being open to new techniques was something Schrotenboer learned in college, as email became a thing—though the only place he could check it was Norlin Library—and he started asking professors for their thoughts on the future of print news in a digital world.

“The current climate—yeah, it’s tough out there. But there are still people doing great work,” he said. “A lot of people are trying hard and fighting the fight for journalism.”

The old dog may have a few new tricks, but above all, Schrotenboer prizes traditional journalism values like fairness, objectivity and accuracy—all of which come into play when he’s covering his alma mater.  

“My job is to hold the institution accountable, which in turn makes the institution better,” he said. “When I’m in the press box at a game, I’m not hoping CU scores a touchdown, I’m worrying about getting my story right and writing something people want to read.”

That kind of perspective was something he was happy to share while speaking in the Prime Time course. Although he graduated before CMCI was formed, he called the course “a smart play to take advantage of this cultural moment CU is having” and said a broad education that encompasses journalism, media studies, communication and related disciplines is very valuable for professionals.

In fact, while he had inspirations as a journalism student—including Douglas Looney (���dzܰ�’63), formerly of Sports Illustrated, who taught sports writing at 91������—some of the classes that left the deepest impression were in areas like law and anthropology.

“I grew up in a small town in Michigan, a first-generation college student, and it was eye-opening to come to a big university and take classes in things like Black history and culture, nuclear warfare, and stuff like that,” he said. “All this stuff was like forbidden fruit to me. I grew up in a small town, but I never lived there again. CU changed everything for me.”

Off