MEDAILLE & NEWHOUSE

Path to Success

Medaille’s New Partnership With Syracuse University Opens Doors for Communication Students

By Tara Erwin

Do not wait, accelerate.Those are words to live by for the communication majors who are enrolled in a unique program between Medaille College and the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University (SU). In just four or five years, those students can complete both undergraduate and graduate studies, thanks in large part to the foresight of Associate Professor of the Practice Emeritus and Former Chair of the Department of Communication & Sport Studies Lisa Marsherall and Medaille President Kenneth Macur, Ph.D.

Marsherall retired in June after 30 years at Medaille and was elevated to faculty emeritus status. A graduate of the Newhouse School herself, she remembers the 2019 communication senior recognition lunch, where she mentioned to Dr. Macur that two of her students were headed to SU for their master’s degrees. She informed him that Medaille had a strong track record of its communication graduates furthering their education at Newhouse.

“Dr. Macur turned to me and said, ‘We should reach out to SU and try to form an arrangement between our two institutions,’” says Marsherall.

Marsherall and Medaille’s Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Michelle Bogdan began to coordinate with leadership at SU. The university almost immediately agreed to the partnership. “We are so excited to both formalize and continue our longstanding and strong relationship with Medaille graduates,” says Newhouse’s Associate Dean for Professional Graduate Programs Joel Kaplan. “We have already had many Medaille grads come to Newhouse for their master’s degree, and this will streamline the process, as well as provide scholarships to some of Medaille’s top students.”

Similar to Medaille’s 3+3 agreement with the University at Buffalo School of Law, the 3+1 agreement with Newhouse now gives Medaille’s communication or sport communication students the chance to finish a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in only four years. The 4+1 program allows students to complete both degrees in five straight years. Moreover, SU agreed to grant a 30 percent tuition scholarship for up to two communication graduates from Medaille each year.

“We are constantly looking for ways to enhance the student experience, expand

Alex Clark ’17 and Lisa Marsherall

student opportunities and make college more affordable,” says Dr. Macur. “Adopting innovative curriculum and partnerships is part of Medaille’s strategic initiatives to best position our students for career success.”

Assistant Professor Juli Hinds, Ph.D., the program director for Medaille’s communication and sport communication programs, sees the partnership with Newhouse as a natural extension of Medaille’s mission to create well-rounded, empowered individuals. “This partnership is at the heart of what Medaille College is all about — building community and academic scholarship,” she says. “Students come to our department, not only to learn technical skills, but also to grow as a person.”

“When these students move on to graduate school, they are still a part of the Medaille community,” continues Dr. Hinds, who has decades of experience working in radio

and television as an on-air talent. “That connection is apparent in the lovely emails I have received from students in the program. Their messages are filled with new ideas and intellectual insights, and the fact that students feel compelled to stay in touch and share their achievements is testament to the richness of the relationship between Medaille and Newhouse.”

The partnership with SU became final in fall 2019, and covers 10 master’s degree programs: advertising; arts journalism and communications; audio arts; broadcast and digital journalism; magazine, news and digital journalism; media and education; new media management; multimedia, photography and design; public relations; and television, radio and film.

The two Medaille students Marsherall mentioned to Dr. Macur in May 2019 just finished their graduate studies at Newhouse.

Cole Johnson ’19

Dr. Juli Hinds with students in her fall 2020 honors public speaking class.

One of them is Cole Johnson ’19, who recently completed his capstone internship as a reporter for WPRI-TV in Providence, R.I., covering the New England Patriots. He will soon be moving to California for his job search. He credits his years at Medaille for helping him gain knowledge and exposure to various mediums, which gave him a wide range of experience before attending Newhouse for broadcast and digital journalism.

Johnson says his graduate program was an intense but valuable experience. “There were some 16-hour days,” he says. “A lot of that was not only spent in the classroom, but I would also take time after class to make phone calls, prep for a story or do work to create a package in one day. It was tiring at times, but well worth it.”

Lisa Cialfi ’09, who works as a digital director at Horizon Media in New York City, agrees with Johnson’s assessment of Newhouse. She currently leads a team that negotiates and buys digital media for a major quick service pizza restaurant. She graduated from Medaille with a bachelor’s degree in media communications, and earned a master’s degree in public relations from SU in 2010.

“The Newhouse ‘boot camp’ was one of the most challenging experiences there,” says Cialfi. “We had to complete projects, such as writing articles in a matter of hours, and one misspelled noun equated to a ‘Newhouse F.’ It really pushed us to be able to think on our feet and pull off near-perfect work in a short amount of time.”

Communication program alumnus Alex Clark ’17, who earned a master’s degree in advertising from Newhouse in 2018, says it takes a certain type of personality to see both programs through to completion. “I often tell people that my year in Syracuse was the hardest of my life,” he says. “Time management was crucial, and it took a whole new level of commitment.”

Clark, who currently works as a digital marketing specialist at Townsquare Interactive in Charlotte, N.C., says it was all worthwhile, however. In his current role, he provides over 125 clients with a variety of solutions for website development, search engine optimization and reputation monitoring. He would readily endorse the dual degree offering to like-minded students.

“Grad school was also the most rewarding year of my life,” he says. “Taken together, my education really showed me just how much I was capable of achieving. It was an amazing experience.”

Another graduate of both programs, Brigethia Guins-Jamison ’16, currently works as an assistant account executive at Hill + Knowlton Strategies in Washington, D.C. She provides media relations, executive communications and content development support for clients like Procter & Gamble, Cotton USA and Aflac. She graduated from Medaille with a bachelor’s degree in communication, and earned a master’s degree in public relations from Newhouse in 2017. Having viewed both degrees as an investment in her future, she says the handson experience and strong alumni network that Newhouse boasts were key factors in her decision to attend.

“My research pointed to SU as the top public communications school,” she says. “Because it is an accelerated program, things are twice as hard, but my degree has opened so many doors for me.”

The other graduates echoed Guins-Jamison’s sentiments about utilizing Newhouse alumni. “When you graduate, you are automatically granted access to an online alumni portal for research and networking,” says Clark. He says it can often lead to anything from a simple phone conversation to landing a job interview.

Johnson shares how even just the Newhouse name is a door opener. “The Newhouse title on a resume alone helps get jobs,” he says. “Not only that, but the constant reallife experience and exposure to the latest equipment and technology are what make its graduate programs so effective.”

Brigethia Guins-Jamison ’16

Cialfi is certain she would not have her career in New York if not for both of her degrees. “My education made me a more well-rounded human,” she says. “Aside from preparing me for the job market, I gained an intangible amount of personal growth and insight into what I want out of life.”

It is hard to believe a casual conversation over lunch could turn into such a lifechanging program, but Dr. Macur’s foresight, combined with Marsherall’s passion for her alma mater and dedication to her students, made it almost inevitable.

“I was so happy to be part of this opportunity for our students,” says Marsherall. “I keep in touch with most of them, and find it so rewarding to follow their progress.”

Marsherall says one of her proudest moments from her 30 years at Medaille was when Alex Clark presented her with an orange sash at his graduation ceremony. The sash was given to graduates so they could thank someone who profoundly influenced them, and the phrase embedded on it was simple, yet impactful: “I could not have done it without you.”