Well folks, it's the end of the Spring Semester and our intrepid explorers are setting off on their next life mission. Joining me on this episode are Madison Wilber, Broadcast Journalism '25, and Octavio Franklin, Advertising '25. We talk about highlights, inspirations, next steps and interesting stuff that they've been up to. This is also the Season Finale for Season 2 .... wow. There'll be a special in the summer, maybe, and then Season 3 in September. Have a fun summer!

It's the end of the academic year and time to wave off our latest batch of graduating students. But we won't let them go without celebrating their successes. Belen Moreno joins me to talk about our Graduating Students' Showcase. Let's call it "Reach For The Stars #1". We chat about what we are planning to do, what we want to celebrate and why it matters thgat students show up. This year we have the inaugural Superstar and Rising Star Awards as the focal point of the event.

Did you know we have a Broadcast Meteorology Minor in SJSU? And that our Journalism students take it? And that they apply that to their broadcast program? Update News, our weekly broadcast news show includes a weather feature and this is the result of a collaboration between JMC and the world renowned Department of Meteorology and Climate Science. In this episode we chat with Rob Mayeda. Rob is a meteorologist with NBC News Bay Area as well as a part time lecturer in SJSU. We chat about the minor, the weather, the importance of visual prompts and the performative aspects of relaying weather science across broadcast platforms. While you're at it, check out the minor, it may lead to a brand new and unexpected career!

I love how our students are so active in so many extracurricular activities that broaden their perspectives and their skill sets. Join me as I chat to Sendy Tapia, one of our PR Majors with amazing stories to tell. Stories about her work in magazines, and how her writing is featured in an anthology of women Xicana writers/poets/storytellers and the book tour coming to campus THIS WEEK!

Sports are a big deal on college campuses. From high flying athletics programs down to club sports, our athletes are critical in our campus identity. JMC has its fair share of student athletes and we also cover campus sports in The Spear magazine, in the Daily and on Update news. We have a Sports Journalism minor and some of our athletes go on to hit the big time. Others use their experiences in sports to help them in their off-pitch careers. Our student athletes have gone on to have fulfilling careers as sports journalists, as PR professionals and also gold medal winners.

Prof. Rodney Knox is a lecturer in JMC with an amazing career spanning our Bay Area pro teams - notably the 49ers - as a PR professional and as an instructor on The Spear as well eas having involvement on other on-campus sports related activities. We chat to Rodney in this episode about the social impact of sports and how we cover this discipline in JMC.

Sometime in the previous Jams Season we chatted to Rowena Ulbrick from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia about an upcoming Creative Jam between our two institutions. Well, the time has come and we are preparing ourselves for the Jam!

Associate Professor Tina Korani is our SJSU Jammer on the ground and we talk about the event, Adobe, and all things AI. Tina is a veteran of Creative Jams and Design Sprints, together we've worked on a number of these over the years, always fun, always engaging, always rewarding work. Tune in and hear what this one entails and how we are addressing responsible and ethical use of AI with our creative students.

Students, this is the Jam blurb:

Sometimes I students take an interest and a class project and elevate it to new heights. Our Advertising Portfolio class always includes a Passion Project as one of the key assignments. Student Simon Haupt took his passion for music and turned it into a review site on Instagram. He talks about his favorite albums and offers insights behins the music. With the help of friends and fellow advertising students like Vinson Thai they have kept the initiative going and grown their audience.

In this episode we talk to Simon and Vinson about the project, about music, and how the wider SJSU community can get involved. Their Insta handle is https://www.instagram.com/towertunes/ so go give them a follow!

It's an annual extravaganza! Every Spring Semester the Spartan Ad Club goes to NYC. This year, led by Faculty Advisor Belen Moreno, our students visited six agencies across Manhattan and Brooklyn. They are back - inspired, invigorated and defrosted from the February East Coast temps! Packing so many industry visits into a three day week is exhausting but very rewarding. In this episode we hear from Belen Moreno and one of our advertising students, Nicole Cailles, about their experiences and their highlights of this year's trip.

The Spartan Daily is one of the most awarded campus newspapers in the workld ever. Well, most likely. It's certainly award winning, always bringing home prizes from the various student media competitions in California and beyond. Our students win big for their stories, photos, editorials, and design.

Of course, their talent ultimately bring these accolades to campus, but it's the hard work of Professor Richard Craig and Mike Corpos that lies behind their efforts. These two are relentless and in this episode we talk about the importance of a publication like the Daily for the future of journalism. And we also find out how to become a part of this award winning piece of student media legend.

It really takes a village ... in order to give our students a head start, we develop collaborations and build relationships with our related industries. The J-program is working on a series of collaborative efforts with, primarily, San Jose Spotlight, SJ's leading not-for-profit independent news outlet. In this episode I chat with Ramona Giwargis co-founder of San Jose Spotlight and alum of our program. We talk about a fellowship scheme we have in development, Knight Foundation funding and pipelines into the media industries.