School of Communication
Experiences & Opportunities
Student Media
The Holcad, Titan Radio, wcn247.com and the Westminster Cable Network (WCN) are functioning, hands-on learning labs reaching out to the campus and the world. They showcase our students' creations and best practices while offering valuable experience. These co-curricular extensions of the academic programs serve to inform and entertain the College and the surrounding community through the variety of programming offered.
The Holcad - Westminster's Student Newspaper
The Holcad is Westminster's award-winning, weekly student newspaper. It allows students to gain valuable experiences managing, editing, and delivering information to the community.
Titan Radio/WWNW-FM (88.9)
Titan Radio operates 24 hours a day from new studios in the McKelvey Campus Center. The station uses the latest digital technology, streaming live on the web and broadcasting on the air, to provide students experience in all facets of radio including music, news, and sports announcing, commercial production, and commercial, news and sports writing.
The Princeton Review's annual student survey has repeatedly ranked Titan Radio as one of the top stations in the country.
WCN - Westminster Cable
The Westminster Cable Network (WCN) provides programming to three cable systems that reach over 60,000 homes. Students produce a weekly magazine show and a weekly sports interview program (Coaches Corner), as well as live coverage of both college and local high school sporting events, and the Lawrence County Band Festival. In addition to local coverage, network broadcasts have appeared on FOX Sports and PCN, reaching millions of cable subscribers.
Students get a chance to work in all aspects of television and video, including on-air, directing, and various crew positions. Students also showcase productions, stories and original content online through Vimeo channels, Facebook and more.
WCN 24/7 Westminster College News
WCN 24/7 covers our Campus and our community. Pulling from a variety of news sources, including The Holcad and WCN, this news site showcases our students' journalistic work alongside national and regional news of interest.
Internships
Professional experiences like internships provide a meaningful real-world component to your education and your resume. Internships can also lead to valuable networking opportunities and can even lead to full-time employment after graduation.
School of Communication students have interned with Pittsburgh Penguins, Amazon, WPXI-TV, UPMC Jameson, Make-a-Wish Foundation, and Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.
Learn more about internships and the other opportunities available through our Office of Professional Development & Community Engagement .
Center for the Environment
The mission of the Center for the Environment is to connect people with each other and the natural world. CfE strives to create an understanding of the dynamic relationships among society, our environment, and the economy. Students from all majors benefit from the Center’s programming and resources, which are designed to foster critical thinking, creative expression, data collection and analysis, ethical judgements, entrepreneurial endeavors, and human wellbeing.
CfE initiatives include the Westminster Bee Company, a student-led business that hand-bottles and sells the honey produced in the almost 30 beehives that make up the Westminster College apiary.
Drinko Center for Undergraduate Research
The Drinko Center supports student research and creative work in all majors and at all academic levels. Drinko provides financial grants that support student projects or travel to national conferences, including the Summer Research Fellows, which provides stipends to student-faculty research teams.
The Center also organizes the Undergraduate Research and Arts Celebration (URAC), a day-long event showcasing the collaborative work between Westminster faculty and students.
Honors Program
Westminster College’s Honors Program believes that the life of the mind is best cultivated when students take what they have learned in the classroom and go out into the world. That’s why our program builds international travel into its sequence of interdisciplinary, global honors seminars with a trip to Greece.
The curriculum gives you the opportunity to learn about human history and nature from multiple perspectives, while also supporting the development of strong leadership, communication, and writing skills. It will also connect you to a vibrant community of students from across campus who are excited about learning.
Professional Networking Symposium
Open to all majors, the Professional Networking Symposium is an annual event designed to help students and young alumni better understand potential paths after graduation, including career and graduate school options.
The Symposium includes a career fair, breakout sessions and the opportunity to learn to network. Sessions are designed to address specific topics and interests and are moderated by experienced professionals.
Study Abroad
Studying abroad is a life-changing educational experience for many of our students. Our Office of Global Engagement developed different kinds of study abroad opportunities, designed to meet varying curricular and economic situations.
We offer traditional semester-long, individual study abroad opportunities in more than 30 countries. Also, students can elect to take short-term study abroad opportunities, such as a May travel course, or a Study Tour, which is a travel experience tied to a regular on-campus course or co-curricular program.
Westminster Entrepreneurship Center (WEC)
WEC offers students in any major the opportunity to be exposed to concept creation, innovation of ideas and business ownership strategies. These activities are nurtured through practiced entrepreneurial exposures, state-of-the-art facilities, leadership collaboration, dynamic entrepreneurial engagements, competitions and events designed to offer students an unparalleled exposure to real world practical experiences.
Student Organizations & Honor Societies
Broadcast Education Association
The Student Chapter of Broadcast Education Association (BEA) at Westminster College provides enrichment opportunities that expand student experiences and understanding communications and media. The BEA@WC Student Media Club connects students with interest in any number of domains including theater; film; storytelling; television; gaming; documentaries; digital marketing news; sports broadcasting; media marketing and sales; advertising; promotions; social media; technology; media literacy; and more. The organization provides students with real-world applications, outreach, and opportunities to connect with the broadcast, film, and digital media industries. The organization works to unite students, faculty, alumni, and industry professionals in fostering and sharing a passion and understanding of tomorrow’s media.
Film Club
The purpose of the Film Club is to regularly screen classic and contemporary films on campus for its members, thereby facilitating discussion and promoting a greater appreciation of cinema.
Lambda Pi Eta (Communication)
Lambda Pi Eta, an honorary organization overseen by the National Communication Association, was organized on Westminster's campus in 2001 with these purposes: (a) to recognize, foster and reward outstanding scholastic achievement in communication studies; (b) to stimulate interest in the field of communication; (c) to promote and encourage professional development among communication majors; (d) to provide an opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas in the field of communication; (e) to establish and maintain closer relationships and mutual understanding between speech communication studies faculty and students; and (f) to explore options for graduate education in communication studies.
Public Relations Society of America
The Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) is composed of undergraduate and/or graduate students interested in public relations. Bi-weekly meetings, guest speakers, and special events allow students to further their knowledge of PR and gain valuable experience in the field. Additional information is available at www.prssa.org. Only those students enrolled at Westminster College of Pennsylvania shall be eligible for membership in this chapter.
Speech & Debate Society
Westminster Speech & Debate is an organization whose general purpose is to enhance the public speaking skills of Westminster students. Beyond this, we seek to:
- celebrate public speaking in a variety of forms,
- promote the freedom of speech on campus,
- recognize and encourage diverse voices,
- model and sponsor civilized public debate,
- provide opportunity for intercollegiate forensic competition,
- demonstrate the practice of artful public reading and oral interpretation of literature,
- motivate the development of engaged citizenship by reviving the classical ideal of “the good person speaking well,” and
- reaffirm the importance of the spoken word on campus, in the community, in our country and around the world.