The Harrington School of Communication and Media is holding a Senior Showcase and Honors Ceremony to commemorate seniors and their capstone work.
The event is on April 25 from 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and will take place in the Memorial Union Ballroom with refreshments for lunch and a reception at the end of the event.
“The name itself says it, it’s to showcase our student’s best work,” said Ammina Kothari, director of the Harrington School of Communication and Media and a professor of journalism. “This is an event celebrating our students and the work they’ve done.”
This is the first time this event is being held for the Harrington School and the graduates of the college. In previous years, there was a pre-commencement ceremony for students who are graduating with honors, or a GPA of 3.3 or above, and awards of excellence.
According to Kothari, the Senior Showcase and Honors Ceremony will be displaying seniors within the College of Arts and Sciences and the work they chose to conduct as their capstone work.
The capstone event is split into two focuses for students in the various fields of the department. From 1:30pm through 3:30pm, students will be showcasing their “digital portfolios” which includes their website and personal work for attendees to view.
During the portfolio presentations, students will be able to share their work, including poster presentations of research papers and trailers of film students are working on. An award ceremony will be held from 4:30pm through 6pm to acknowledge seniors graduating with Honors, or a GPA of 3.3 or higher.
According to the Harrington website, the event will hold capstone work from students in the film department, journalism department and a University-wide capstone course.
Journalism students can choose to pitch any of their work from their courses. The majority of the projects are done independently, with a few collaborative examples. Some presentations include research projects, in-depth feature stories and film trailers, according to Kothari.
“All of the projects are going to be unique,” Kothari said. “They all reflect the student’s interest and their skill set and there’s a variety of projects that students have done.”
In capstone courses, students work for the entirety of the semester putting together a final project. There is the opportunity to work with faculty members, but it is mainly an independent project. Feedback from faculty continues throughout the duration of the project and the final projects will be presented at this event.
“My goal is to celebrate our students, and they have all worked hard,” Kothari said. “So everybody’s journey ends with a degree and we want to be able to celebrate everyone and for them to be able to showcase things they are interested in.”
Any senior in the Harrington School is encouraged to attend the event, and registration is required. Families of the graduates are able to attend the event and award ceremony, take photos with seniors and celebrate their achievements during their time in the Harrington School.