Preparing Students for Success

In the past year, Professor Lisa Mastramico has brought a new focus on giving students the tools they need to thrive as aspiring media professionals. In 2017, Mastramico joined the Communications faculty to teach the COM 106 Digital Toolkit course and stepped into the role of COM 496 internship coordinator. While she technically serves as the internship coordinator for the College of Arts & Humanities (CAH), she has focused most of her attention and effort on the Communications Department and its requisite COM 496 course.

COM 496, an internship course for Communications students at California State University, Dominguez Hills, gives students the chance to build their resumé, develop a cover letter and take the first step into the industry related to their major. Intended for graduating seniors, the class offers a range of tools and assistance that help students find internship programs and establish connections as they transition away from undergraduates to professionals.

The course, guided by Mastramico, is designed to help students prepare and succeed in their professions. A goal she has for her students is to identify and validate their skill sets.

"I want students to feel confident and use those transferable skills they already have," said Mastramico.

For CSUDH Communications majors, COM 496 is a required course for graduating seniors. The guidelines for completing the course require students to work a minimum of 120 hours as an intern in the industry they are passionate about pursuing. During this time students can gain experience and apply the skills they've learned in the classroom into their work.

Additionally, this semester-long class helps students fine-tune their resumés and cover letters. All enrolled students are encouraged to seek advice from their networks and schedule appointments with the career center to go over their resumé and cover letter in detail. The intended goal is to have as many eyes look at it as possible.

"Get it proofed," said Mastramico. "Students should take responsibility. I encourage them to reach out to their own network to review their resumés."

Since taking over as the internship coordinator at CSUDH in 2017, Mastramico has reached out to her network and helped many students find internships and created a professional contact list to help students to reach out and apply for internships.

"Internships are always so fluid," said Mastramico. "We have a list of previous placements and I am constantly creating placements. This semester I placed seven students towards my own network."

Although she has only been the internship coordinator for a short time, Mastramico and the internship students have helped establish good standing and connections with large media companies. Some of these media companies like Vox Pop Films, Padnet and ID expect CSUDH student applicants every semester. A few students have been offered positions after their internship. Although it is not common, Mastramico is confident it will start occurring more.

As Mastramico starts her second year as the internship coordinator there are many things she is excited to implement for the following semesters.

"One thing I want to implement in COM 496 is to have everyone come back together at the end of the semester," said Mastramico. "I want students to have a discussion, share experiences, talk about etiquette and use LinkedIn."

Another goal Mastramico has for following semesters is to combine the orientation class students must attend at the beginning of the semester with a workshop geared towards improving their resumés and cover letters. This will help prepare students early on, so they can focus their energy the rest of the semester on finding an internship.

Mastramico is also teaching the newly offered, lower-division COM 106 Digital Toolkit course, which helps students learn the fundamentals of foundational and emerging tools, platforms, and digital skills essential for students interested in pursuing careers in any communications or related field, including data management, presentational, media content creation, web publishing, and design/editing software and programs. Students in this course will also be taught the basics of web publishing platforms and design/editing programs, including Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop, InDesign, Audacity, and Wordpress.

By introducing Communications majors to these media content and publishing platforms early in their academic careers, the long-term goal is to give students all the tools they need to be prepared for the culminating COM 496 Internship requirements as well as future careers in the media industries.

Many students at CSUDH have already taken advantage of the skills they have learned in the classroom and have felt confident about the work they have contributed to their internships.

"I did feel confident in what I brought to the table, and I owe a good amount of that to the journalism program at Dominguez," said Julissa James, Journalism major.

Other students have had the opportunity to take what they have learned at CSUDH and develop their skills further with the help of mentors in their internships.

"I was lucky to have gained experience from both Univision and NBC," said Journalism major Maria Villa. "Both news directors I worked with have guided me when I approached news stories and have overseen small projects I have worked