Communication Department Celebrates Student Internship Experiences

Want to broadcast for the Red Sox, stage manage an immersive theater production, or experience New York Fashion Week? Be a Curry College Communication major.

On October 17, department faculty and College staff gathered in the Parents’ Lounge of the Hafer Academic Building to learn more about the broad range of Communication major internship experiences at the Fall Internship Seminar Dinner.

Communication professors Bob MacNeil and Jerry Gibbs welcomed attendees, including 26 Communication majors who completed internships last summer or who are currently interning this fall. As one of its stated learning goals, the major includes at least one internship before graduation, a requirement designed to help students develop career interests and prepare to use their skills in the professional world.

“This is the third Internship Seminar Dinner that we’ve held, and we feel that it’s valuable because Communication has the most interns in the field at one time,” says MacNeil. “Internships are important, and getting together to talk about them and learn from each other’s experiences is important.”

Also in attendance were 14 first-year Communication Scholars, members of a living learning program to which students apply before beginning their first year at Curry. COM Scholars live in residence halls together, participate in specially designated and linked courses in their first year, and with mentorship from faculty members, motivate each other to excel in their chosen major and future careers.

The evening began with a Skype session with seniors Jenna Naughton and Miranda Trieble, both of whom are living in Brooklyn and doing full time, 12-credit internships in New York City this semester, through the long-distance program created by Professor Gibbs. Students who have already completed one internship can also travel to Washington, DC or Los Angeles for a semester. Naughton is a public relations and social media intern for Caravan Stylist Studio (a beauty and fashion styling studio for celebrities, social influencers, editors, and artists), while Trieble is working as a marketing intern for FRIGID New York, a non-profit organization that produces theater festivals for independent artists as well as providing rental space for staging of independent artist work.

Summer and Fall 2019 interns shared their experiences in diverse industries and roles, including as stage managers, video editors, production and broadcast assistants, digital production managers, and content generators, doing photography, event planning, branding, social media, news assignment, and general marketing and communications. A wide range of companies, non-profit organizations and industries were represented, from NESN and 98.5 SportsHub Radio, to the Alight Theater Guild; from a real estate firm, a semi-conductor manufacturer and an event planning company to a food and nutrition non-profit and an outdoor sports apparel firm.

Students also interned on the Curry College campus, in the Office of Marketing and Communications and the Office of Wellness, as well as for Sports Information and for Curry College Hockey.

The evening was punctuated before and after dinner by two alumni guest speakers, who shared their experiences as Communication majors at Curry and in the professional world. Allan Yannone ’11 is videographer for online classes at MIT, and he and his wife Kadie also run their own production company, Loft7 Productions.

“It’s ironic that I’m speaking to you at an Internship Dinner, because I did not do an internship while I was at Curry, and it was a huge mistake!” quipped Yannone. He spoke about his experiences as a struggling new graduate in New York City, until he finally landed a story assistant role with “Dancing with the Stars.” This was followed by work with truTV’s “Impractical Jokers,” and Sweetwater Video Production, before moving home to the Boston area to take on a new challenge at MIT. Yannone advised students to network, to “show up early and stay late,” to always be prepared, and finally: “Don’t be afraid to take advantage of opportunities, because you never know what will happen in your career.”

Chloe Ferrarone ’14 is now Operations Manager at WGBH in Boston, but before she even graduated from Curry, she had already racked up an impressive list of credentials in the television industry, with internships at CharterTV3, ESPN, MLB Network, Comcast Sportsnet Boston, Fox25 and Major League Baseball. An original COM Scholar, she encouraged students to tap into the support system that Curry College offers. After graduation, Ferrarone moved to New York City to take a job as a production coordinator for MLB Advance Media - a role which she credits to her internship experiences.

“I took advantage of the opportunities Curry offered, and what I did led to my career path,” said Ferrarone. “You may think you know what you want to do, but try different internships, get exposed to what you can.”

The Communication department at Curry offers a major and a minor, as well as specialized concentrations in PR/Corporate Communication; Film, Radio and Video/TV; Multimedia Sports Journalism; Theatre; and Video Game Studies.