A recent survey of our graduates shows that job duties of the alumni are diverse and often cross over different specialties. Many of our graduates work as advertising copywriters, business managers, graphic designers, marketing coordinators, news editors, photographers, reporters, project directors, public relations specialists, Web designers and sales representatives. A number of graduates remain in the Fox Valley. Many are scattered around Wisconsin, neighboring states, and metropolitan areas including Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington.

A number of graduates are working at large advertising, public relations, media outlets and businesses including ESPN.com, Politico.com, Harley Davidson, Leo Burnett, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ogilvy & Mather, Shandwick International, Target, TBWA/Chiat Day, and Bader Rutter, to name a few.

To learn more about some of these careers, check past issues of the Journalism Alumni Newsletter.

For advertising agencies, check the book Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies, available at Polk Library, UW Oshkosh. You may also check online resources at www.aaaa.org.

For public relations companies, check the website of the Public Relations Society of America at www.prsa.org.

For news media, you may find the information in Bacon’s, Editor & Publisher International Yearbook or log on to www.newslink.org, which provides links to newspapers with websites.

To complete the paperwork, you need to meet with an academic adviser in the Student Success Center, Suite 202, to fill out a form. We strongly recommend that you meet with a journalism adviser before or after you decide on your emphasis. For most journalism classes, you need to see a journalism professor to register for those classes. For more information about journalism advising, please see our advising Web page or send an email to journalism@uwosh.edu.

The main resource available to students is the University-wide Career and Professional Development in the Student Success Center, Suite 125. It offers a number of forms of assistance for students seeking to begin their careers.

The journalism department enhances placement opportunities for graduates in a number of ways. For example, department faculty pass along information about job possibilities to seniors. (Much of this information comes by way of faculty–alumni contact.) This is accomplished by announcements in classes and by posting printed versions on departmental bulletin boards.

Faculty also advise students on the job-finding process, on an individual basis and in a number of classes, making suggestions like how to prepare for a job interview or putting together a portfolio. Exercises in many journalism classes, specifically the Internship class, produce appropriate portfolio materials.

The Department of Journalism sponsors an annual spring conference of the Northeastern Wisconsin Scholastic Press Association (NEWSPA), where more than 500 high school students and school publications advisers travel to UW Oshkosh to participate in more than 50 sessions and panels led by prominent professionals and academics in the journalism field.

NEWSPA also offers adviser training sessions, yearbook and newspaper competitions, and produces two newsletters a year. Check with the adviser of your school newspaper or yearbook, or visit our NEWSPA page for more information.

For information, please visit our internships page.

Students learn about the opportunities in a variety of ways. Notices of openings are posted on bulletin boards in the journalism area and on the department website in our internship section.

A newsletter produced by students in the internship class and describing their experiences is available to view. Notices of internship openings also are kept in a binder in the department as a reference source, and one-page descriptions of internships recently completed by journalism students are kept in another binder.

In addition, among the responsibilities of those in the internship class is a requirement that they make presentations of their internships to journalism classes. Typically about a dozen classes have presentations each semester. At the instructor’s request, an attempt is made to match the intern’s experience with the skills focus of the class.

All students wanting to take a course in journalism must meet with a faculty adviser to sign up for courses, except for Introduction to Media: News, Public Relations and Advertising, Principles of Advertising, and Principles of Public Relations.

An attempt is made to match journalism advisers with advisees based on faculty teaching area and student interest in the profession. Students may select any adviser at any time, however. Detailed instructions for advising are posted on the department’s here.

The department offers courses when sufficient funding is available. Courses offered in the past include Writing for the Media, Media Photo I, Foundations of Multimedia Storytelling, Editing and Global Media. Check with your journalism adviser about what courses might be offered in the coming summer sessions.

More importantly, the frequent crossover of job specialties between advertising/public relations and writing/editing graduates indicates that writing and editing skills provide the foundation that allows them to be more marketable and to successfully cross over.

In other words, we are training journalism leadership and professionalism in addition to craftsmanship. The success of many graduates attests to the right direction of journalism education.

The department offers several scholarships to journalism majors. A list is available on here.

Visit the scholarships page on our website and click on “Apply for Scholarships”, or go to the department’s reading room to view criteria for all scholarships within the department. The scholarships page will also state the deadline for applications.

These are just examples. Many journalism students choose business administration, marketing, art, or other humanities and social sciences as their minors, depending on their interest areas.

• A faculty that is well-balanced between those with a doctorate and those offering exceptionally strong professional credentials, all of whom are active in scholarly and professional pursuits
• Up-to-date computer and photography labs and access through them to a variety of new multimedia technologies
• Recruitment of high-quality majors and minors by means of a strict and continuing program of student advisement and a reasonable program of enrollment management supplemented by a close connection between the department and high schools in the area.
• A continuing program of recognition of outstanding students at the University level by means of significant University-level alumni awards, supplemented by the development of department awards and scholarships for students
• A continuing concern that students in the program be exposed to the diverse ideas of a diverse population and multiculturalism, both at the University, within the state, nationally and internationally
• Good relations with media and related organizations in Wisconsin, both through contacts with alumni and through departmental initiatives, such as recruitment of academic staff, field trips to area-related communications businesses, visits to the program by professionals, faculty participation in state professional organizations and extra-departmental campus organizations
• A continuing and close relationship between the program and its graduates, built on relationships between faculty and alumni. This is achieved via newsletters, surveys, reunions, video conferencing and other more personal means
• Outstanding achievements by students as indicated by their success in both local and national competitions, receipt of scholarships, and success of alumni at high-profile companies
• Opportunities for students to join professional organizations, obtain significant internship experiences and compete with other schools and departments in regional and national competitions

The department has the following student organizations:

• Ad Club
• Kappa Tau Alpha National Honor Society
• Photo Club
• Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA)
• Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ)

Journalism students are encouraged to work for the Advance-Titan and contribute to this student newspaper, which is independent of the Department of Journalism.

It has received the prestigious Pacemaker Award, given to the top college newspapers in the country. Valuable experience can be gained in virtually all aspects of journalism by working on the A-T. Students can write stories, edit copy, take photos, sell ads, draw cartoons and design pages and advertisements.