The Canisius Communication Department Sponsored a Networking event on campus called HomeCOMing, a play on words of the traditional “homecoming” and the inclusion of the abbreviation of the Communication Department. The event was called this because the department invited back more than a dozen alumni to speak with current students about jobs after graduation, current aspirations while in college, and things to do to upgrade your resume and portfolio.
The event was held in the Grupp Lounge inside the Richard Winter Student Center at Canisius College, and each major/concentration under the communication umbrella was represented by alumni, faculty, staff, and students. As a dual Journalism and Communication Studies major, I knew most of the Canisius Professors and even recognized some of the recent alumni as I had taken classes with them in the past.
At the start of the event, I was certainly apprehensive about walking up to people and beginning a conversation, so I was lucky to find a table with some friends and began the night by just making traditional conversation with them. Eventually, somebody wanted to introduce an alumni to someone at our table, and as such the actual networking part began. I found myself in conversation with a couple of people from outside my realm of study, but after some time began talking with Brad Berchou, who works with Channel 4/WIVB. I had spoken to Brad briefly at a previous Canisius sporting event, the amount of times of which that happened I could probably count on one hand, but it helped jumpstart the conversation to at least have that common interest and basic level of familiarity.
We spoke about upcoming Canisius sports, and discussed the likely possibility that we’d be working together a lot this year due to a lower amount of people working the broadcasts here. I was able to ask him questions about his role at WIVB and where that sits in his overall life goal, and also what he does on a daily basis. I’ve had a chance to talk to Brad many times since the event, as our prediction came true and we have worked quite a few Canisius games together.
The event was certainly very fun, especially at the end. After people started funneling out, I began helping clean up and the people remaining had more casual conversations about other things, like cookies and other desserts. I did a small interview with a couple of my classmates, as they are editing together some sort of project for the admissions team apparently. I’m excited to see how that turns out. Either way, it was fun at the end to listen to Dr. Wanzer and Dr. Irwin talk about things in a more relaxed way than they would while in class, and to build friendships with classmates I considered myself friendly with, but never really considered more than acquaintances. I would say that after the HomeCOMing event, there are several people I would deem new friends, something I wish I was more successful at here at Canisius my first three years of attendance. Better late than never I suppose!
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