The new school year is off to a busy start with several recent and upcoming events in SJMC.

We held our annual new majors event and fall picnic to welcome students, faculty and staff to the school. This annual event is an opportunity to showcase our undergraduate student majors in Journalism and Mass Communication and Sport Media and Culture. We also launched our new experiential learning requirement and shared information about our three JMC major tracks: Reporting and Writing, Strategic Communication, and Multimedia Production and Design.

We also welcomed SJMC alum Ryan J. Foley (BA 2003) as our first professional-in-residence of the year. Ryan visited classes to discuss investigative journalism and his work on the award-winning Lethal Restraint project. We concluded his visit with a screening of the Frontline documentary featuring Ryan and a discussion with students and faculty.

SJMC was well represented during this year’s homecoming with two members on the court. Reanna Robb and Campbell Wood were selected as 2025 homecoming court members. Reanna is a Journalism and Mass Communication major and is earning her Event Management and Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy certificates in SJMC. Campbell is also a JMC major on the strategic communication track. Campbell is completing several certificates and minors, including minors in Media Management and Sport Media and Culture in SJMC. Finally, we celebrated 10 years of the Event Management Certificate program with a pre-parade tailgate during homecoming weekend.

We are gearing up for a busy October with the upcoming Midwest Popular Culture Association conference happening on campus this week and the Mobile Me & You: Technology and Journalism conference next week. We’re excited to welcome academics and professionals to campus for these two big events. We’ll share updates on social media and in next month’s newsletter.

We hope you received a copy of our Iowa Journalist summer/fall annual newsletter. If not, please update your mailing address and check out the PDF of the newsletter on our site. If you have a story to share, please send it to sjmc@uiowa.edu.

Melissa Tully, Director