Moody College of Communication
Summer Newsletter
2014-2015
What Starts Here Changes the World…
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The Moody College of
Communication is a won-
derful place to spend the
next few years learning,
growing, and interacting
with some of the greatest
minds that The University
of Texas at Austin has to
offer, and several of
those great minds can be
found in Communication
Council. We are a diverse group of student
leaders who represent all six majors within
the college and range in classification
from first-semester freshmen to graduating
seniors. Communication Council helps
bridge the gap between the students, fac-
ulty, and staff, while bonding with the col-
lege as a whole. At first glance the college
and university might seem like an intimidat-
ing whirlwind of unknowns, but finding your
place within the right group of people real-
ly does chase away those clouds of uncer-
tainty. I am so thankful that I was able to
find my place in Communication Council
and I would absolutely love for you to find
yours here as well.
All the best and Hook ‘em Horns!
Aaron Koehler Communication Council President
Features
About the College 3
Student Organizations 4
A Day In the Life 5
Meet Exec & Chairs 6-9
Majors 10-11
Who We Are 12-13
Twitter: @UTCommCouncil
Facebook: facebook.com/
utcommcouncil
Instagram: @UTCommCouncil
Vine: Communication Council
YouTube: youtube.com/user/
CommunicationCouncil
Website: commcouncil.utexas.org
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Three buildings comprise the Jesse H.
Jones Communication Center: CMA build-
ing, which contains classrooms and de-
partment, faculty, and staff offices; CMB
building, which hosts college studio space,
KUT radio and KLRU public television; and
the HSM building , home to Texas Student
Publications, the Daily Texan, KVRX Student
Radio, and KVR-TV. The Belo Center for
New Media is the latest edition to the Col-
lege of Communication, and provides
classrooms, a 300-person auditorium,
rooms for student organizations, as well as
a multi-media digital room, lounge, and
café. With the inauguration of the Walter
Cronkite Plaza, the College showcases the
beautiful marriage of architecture and
technology.
Graduation might seem far off, but if
you’re not careful, it will sneak up on
you. Your key to success as a UT com-
munications student will be your ability
to combine your academic coursework
with your jobs, internships, student or-
ganization involvement and other extra-
curricular activities to explore your ca-
reer options and gain experience.
Through Communication Career Ser-
vices’ (CCS) advising services, career
exploration programs, online resources,
and our recruiting events (like jobs and
internship fairs), we help you connect
the dots between where you are now
and where you want to be when you
graduate. CCS won’t get you a job, but
we will help you understand your career
options, prepare your resume and cover
letters, develop your professional net-
working and interviewing skills, and con-
nect with employers regarding intern-
ships and jobs. Connect with CCS early
and stay active and involved through-
out your academic career, and you will
be on track to get a job (or go to grad-
uate school) after you graduate.
Visit communication.utexas.edu for:
! Academic Advising
! Course Syllabi
! Degree Requirements
! Faculty
! Internships
! Study Abroad
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Journalism
! Magazine Club (MAG)
! National Press Photographer’s Association
! The National Association of Black Journal-
ists
! Television News Directors Association
! UT Hispanic Journalists
Public Relations
! Public relations Student Society of America
! Texas Tower PR
Radio-Television-Film
! CAGE—Student Production Resource
Center
! University Filmmaker’s Alliance
! Women in Cinema
Advertising
! Texas Advertising Group
! Minute Men Creatives
! TAGLines
! Advertising Graduate Council
CSD
! National Student Speech-Language-
Hearing Association
! Perception, Processing and Produc-
tion (PPP) Research Group
Communication Studies
! Texas Forensics Union (UT Debate
Team)
! UT Speech Team (Forensics)
Texas Student Media
! Cactus Yearbook
! The Daily Texan
! KVRX Student Radio
! Texas Student Television
! Texas Travesty
General
! Association of Latinos in Communica-
tion
! Black Media Council
! Association of Women in Communi-
cation
! Texas Belles Event Planning Organiza-
tion
5
A day in the life of
a Commie….
“POP” back into fall
Hosting Brett Hurt from
Bazaarvoice Inc.
Setting up for Long-
horn Halloween
Committee bonding
time
Our 2014 Intramural
Softball Team
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Aaron Koehler, Senior — President
Kim Carmona, Senior — Vice President
Sonia Amin, Senior — Financial Director
As Vice President of Communication Council, I am in charge of
overseeing all of the chairs and helping them make their events
run smoothly. At the beginning of the semester, I place members
into a committee that is based on their preferences and strengths.
My main job as VP is to bridge the gap between the chairs team
and the executive board.
As President, I lead the executive board as well as council as
whole, ensuring that we're doing the best we can possibly do
(while having a fun time doing it). It my job as the main liaison be-
tween the students, faculty and staff of the Moody College of
Communication, to make sure that everyone's needs are met and
concerns are heard in order to make the college a better place. I
also attend the Senate of College Councils meetings where I vote
on behalf of council on various pieces of legislation.
The financial director budgets Comm Council's allotted funds for
the year, and works closely with the Chairs to complete all paper-
work on time. The FD is also participates in UT Senate, working with
other university councils on financial policy.
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Aaron Koehler, Senior — President
Kim Carmona, Senior — Vice President
Sonia Amin, Senior — Financial Director
Wynden Williams, Senior — Administrative Director
Kevin Vela, Junior — Internal Director
Julia Kowalsky, Junior — External Director
From Left to Right: Kevin Vela, Sonia Amin, Aaron Koehler, Kim Carmona,
Julia Kowalsky and Wynden Williams.
As Administrative Director, I make the agendas for meetings that
have the GDubz members send to each throughout the week . The
agendas also have the contact information for the executive board
and committee chairs, as well as events occurring that month. I also
track all the points members earn throughout the semester. During
our meetings, I organize the PowerPoint with important information
that’s beneficial to the council. At the start of each semester, I am in
charge of giving the orientation to the new council members that
they can get to know more of the ins and outs of what we do, and
how we do it. I am the person who works to help keep council orga-
nized so that everyone knows when and where things are happen-
ing.
As Internal Director, I help keep Communication Council a family
that cares about each other. I get us involved together and
help form bonds that hopefully will last for many years to come.
Watch out new commies -- I hope you like Arcade Fire.
My job in Communication Council is to get the members involved
with events around campus and the Austin area, such as commu-
nity service and on-campus activities that the school or other or-
ganizations are hosting.
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Dillon Swain, Sophomore — Funding
My job as FUN-ding chair is to raise money for our organization. I
want to continue the trend of PROFIT SHARES as well as SELLING
MAJOR-SPECIFIC T-SHIRTS! I think it would also be a great oppor-
tunity to FEED THE HUNGRY and set up a bake sale promoting
COMM COUNCIL! My dearest big (Allie Jensen) has served this
position well and I hope to bring honor to the family in my ef-
forts to do the same. I CANNOT wait to continue the FUN-ding
legacy!
Bishop Wash, Sophomore — Special Events
As the Special Events chair for the next two semesters, I can't
wait to start working with the beautiful minds in my committee
and also increasing the visibility of Communication Council as a
whole through some crazy cool events. We're kind of known for
our booths at celebrations like 40 Acres Fest and I plan on basi-
cally taking that to the next level by utilizing some novel ideas
and creating an unprecedented image for our college. Excite-
ment doesn't even start to describe my feelings toward next se-
mester and I'm biting at the bit to get to work!
Alyssa Brant, Senior — Student Issues and Advisory Committee
After being on the “SIAC” committee for three semesters, I now
have the privilege to serve as this year’s chair. Each year we
gather comments from the students and create a survey that
evaluates the college as well as each major. After analyzing
the data, we present the information to the deans and depart-
ment chairs during an event called Town Hall. I am very excited
to lead this committee because I feel it is one the most impact-
ful things we do as an organization. As chair, I want to continue
bridging the gap between the students and administration, but
also work on raising student awareness of this great opportunity
to make a difference in their college.
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Dillon Swain, Sophomore — Funding
Bishop Wash, Sophomore — Special Events
Alyssa Brant, Senior — Student Issues and Advisory Committee
Joshua Villarreal, Sophomore — Multimedia
Multimedia is in charge of maintaining the Communication
Council website. We update its contents with photos and blogs
regarding what's going on with Council and around the Universi-
ty. Multimedia also creates videos that promote Council internal-
ly and externally. Basically, we are the digital creative outlet con-
necting Communication Council with other Moody students and
the university as a whole.
Ryan Dempsey, Sophomore — Outreach
My job as Outreach Chair is to bring the College of Communica-
tion students and faculty together through fun and casual events
that will put a smile on your face. I plan to continue the well-
known traditions such as “Meet the Professor Night”, “Donuts with
the Deans”, and “Candy Grams”. I really want to give students a
chance to write letters of appreciation to their favorite professors.
I am ecstatic to have the chance to serve as your Outreach
Chair and to bring everyone in our college together.
Kimberly Terrazas, Junior — Career and Alumni Relations
Career and Alumni Relations committee, or CAR, organizes
guest speakers and lecture series that present to students
about communication related issues and topics of their field.
Some of the guest speakers in the past have included entre-
preneurs, politicians, and professionals from around the Austin
area. The committee also acts as a liaison to past alumni, in-
cluding hosting an annual tailgate for all students past and
present. This upcoming year, I hope to utilize our resources and
build a stronger alumni network as well as bring a larger diversi-
ty of speakers for out lecture series.
Kristen Corinne Munoz, Senior — Publicity
Communication Council is my favorite organization on cam-
pus. It's filled with so many uniquely talented and funny individ-
uals who come together to put on the some of the best events
on campus. Why wouldn't I want to share it with UT? My job as
publicity chair is to make sure our events are well publicized
throughout the college and university. This year I hope to bring
back a more traditional form of publicity in order to get
through to people normally outside of our reach. I’m so excit-
ed to explore new ways to share our events with students and
faculty and I can’t wait to work with the rest of the chairs this
year.
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“I chose public relations because even though I wasn’t
exactly sure what it was, I had an idea that it dealt with
working on a company’s public image and it sounded
interesting to me. I could not be happier with my
choice. PR is versatile major that has introduced me to
other fields of study such as advertising, marketing, and
corporate communication. I love that PR is needed for
virtually every company so I can apply it how I want to.
The Moody College of Communication has become
such a home for me and I can’t imagine studying any-
thing else.” - Monisha Kathari, Public Relations
“I chose communication studies with a concentration on
corporate communications because I wanted something
broad enough to allow me to explore my interests with just
enough focus to not make it seem like I hadn't decided on
anything. I figured I could always change my major later if
I didn't like it, but so far I've loved every class in my major
and I've constantly felt interested and driven to learn
more.” - Madeline Krebs, Corporate Communications
“I chose journalism because I’ve always had this inner curi-
osity about the world around me. I’ve spent years trying to
quench that thirst for knowledge but wasn’t able to suc-
ceed until I started my journey at UT. The Moody College of
Communication has provided me with a variety of endless
opportunities to gain real world experience in order to suc-
ceed as a journalist after graduation. Between reporting on
KVR News at TSTV and writing at Orange Magazine, as a
sophomore I have already accomplished so much more
than I ever thought I could simply as a student. Journalism is
all about people, news, and bringing one to the other in a
new and exciting way. That is what I aim to perfect as jour-
nalism major.” - Stephanie Rothman, Journalism
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“I wasn't thinking critically when I first chose my major
and just went with what felt right at the moment. It
turns out that it was the perfect fit.” - Maya Garcia, Political Communications
“I chose to be an advertising major because I wanted to be
able to remain creative throughout my career. I hope that
advertising will allow me to have a structured and profes-
sional career while still having fun. I really like the program
because I have learned the science behind advertising. I
am being taught everything there is to know and the profes-
sors are very involved and are easy to approach.” - Derek Peet, Advertising
“I have always been interested in being in the health care in-
dustry but being a doctor seemed too time-consuming and
somewhat boring to me. It was important that I find a job that
allowed me to work with both adults and children in need and
really help them in some way. I was also itching to find some-
thing that would allow me to express my true love for talking
and communicating with others. Communication Sciences and
Disorders was the perfect combination of these desires and I
have been so in love with my major even since I took the Intro
CSD class my first semester at UT. Being able to assist someone in
living a more fulfilling life is worth all the time spent in class and
studying in this amazing field.” - Allie Jensen, CSD
“I’ve been making films since I was 13. I love to make
people laugh and to teach a mass audience through
entertainment. I feel as if comedians are the philoso-
phers of our day, and are psychologically able to by-
pass the mental blocks we place. I see huge potential
in comedy as a pedagogy tool and as a medium for
inspiration.” - Nathan Waters, Radio-Television-Film
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By the numbers ...
6 Exec members: President, Vice President, Financial Director, Administrative Director, External Director and Internal Director
1 town hall: Opportunity for students to voice concerns to department chairs and deans of the College.
2 meetings a week: One general meeting and a sep-arate committee meeting. Attendance is a must for keeping up with Council and campus issues.
3 retreats: Held each semester to meet new Com-mies and bond as a group. Usually at a park, we play games and are assigned committees.
7 committees: Career + Alumni Relations, Funding, Multimedia, Publicity, Special Events, Outreach, Stu-dent Issues and Advisory Committee
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By the letters ...
AMS After-meeting Social: Week-
ly gathering of Commies where
we eat and catch up after meet-
ing.
B&L Bigs and Littles: :New members
get a Big Commie for the semester
to show them the ropes and en-
hance feelings of inclusion.
G’Dubz Goodness & Wellness: On the agenda and during meetings, Commies can send love to fellow members.
By the members...
“I’ve made so many of my best friends
here. You don’t even realize that you’re
networking while you’re having the time
of your life.” – Claire Rodgers, Junior Jour-nalism Major
“Comm Council is a huge family. They are al-
ways there when I need them and they are
so supportive. They have made my college
experience memorable.” – Kim Carmona, Senior Journalism Major
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commcouncil.utexas.org Communication Council
The University of Texas at
Austin 300 W. Dean Keeton
Austin, Texas 78705
Special thanks to the individuals involved in the crea-tion, production, and distribution of this newsletter.
This newsletter was edited by Claire Rodgers.