WITH SCHOOL OF
JOURNALISM ALUMNI
What are you doing in your field that
you never thought you'd be doing?
Tweeting. Social media has exploded in
the seven years since I left Bona's, to the
point where every major story is broken
on Twitter these days, and it's my number
one news gathering source.
What is the most valuable or distin-
guishing thing you learned at SBU?
How to report. When I got to Bona's I was
a young kid who was excited about being
a journalist. By the time I left, through my
work with professors in class and my
work at The Bona Venture, I had the skills
to match my energy.
What are the desired qualities of
someone entering your field today?
To succeed as a journalist these days,
and particularly a sports writer, you have
to be a "five-tool player." In other words,
you have to be able to write well, go on
What are you doing in your field that
you never thought you'd be doing?
I never thought I would attend a place
called The Creative Circus and live and
work in Atlanta. I knew I wanted to use
my degrees and do something creative,
but I didn't know how to make it happen.
My time in the American Advertising Fed-
eration showed me how much fun
agency life can be, and my introduction
to Mike Jones-Kelley, a member of the
SBU faculty and founder of The Creative
Circus, provided the guidance to land a
career as a creative in advertising.
What is the most valuable or distin-
guishing thing you learned at SBU?
Be a fun and reliable person to work
with.
What are you doing in your field
that you never thought you'd be
doing?
Multi-media. When I was a student, we
heard that technology changes all the
time and I think most of us were like
"yeah, yeah," while thinking that the
major technological changes in commu-
nication were pretty much done. I could
not have imagined I'd be doing so much
web work and thinking about ways to tell
stories through social media, video, pod-
casts as well as good, old-fashioned arti-
cles.
What is the most valuable or distin-
guishing thing you learned at SBU?
I have two things. 1. It's all about telling
good stories. It truly does not matter the
medium, that will change. At the end of
the day, journalists are story tellers and
our job is about finding and telling sto-
ries we believe are important. 2. Look at
life with a wide-angled lens. The wider
your vision, the deeper your compassion,
the more nuanced your work will be.
W
I
N
T
E
R
2
0
1
4
-
2
0
1
5
B O N A V E N T U R E
17
What are you doing in your field that
you never thought you'd be doing?
Everything. I never thought that I would
be in real estate, and I never thought that
I would start my own company. I always
thought that I would be a TV journalist or
something like that.
What is the most valuable or distin-
guishing thing you learned at SBU?
The most valuable thing was to never
give up because times were weird and
trying. I learned to stick it out and never
give up.
What are the desired qualities of
someone entering your field today?
The qualities start with being strong, es-
pecially mentally, because you're going to
hear `no' a lot. Be strong, not soft and
emotional, when working with people.
Don't forget that people are driving your
business, but don't lose sight of yourself
either. Work very hard, and don't lose
sight of yourself.
Tim Bontemps, '07
Brooklyn Nets beat writer, New York Post, New York, N.Y.
Amy Moritz, '96
Sports reporter, Buffalo News
Tom Durante, '09, '11
Art director, iris Worldwide,
Atlanta
Eboni Hayes, '98
Owner of Envisage Marketing Communications
Real estate agent for Nothnagle Realtors, Buffalo, N.Y.
The Changing Landscape ~ School of Journalism
What are the desired qualities of
someone entering your field today?
I still believe it's about having good writ-
ing skills, good communication skills and
the ability to find and tell a
good story.
It's about listening more than talking.
What gives you hope for your profes-
sion?
Communication is always imperfect, but the
more we practice it, the more we can
begin to understand people and situations
and find solutions to problems. There will
always be "noise" and those looking to re-
port quick and easy or sensational and
flashy. But there is still a lot of really good
work going on, work that helps us critically
examine the way we think, act and ap-
proach life.
Q
&
A
radio and television, know how to
use social media and the Internet
and be able to adjust to the ever-
growing number of new advanced
statistics in every sport.
What gives you hope for your
profession?
That there are still young people ex-
cited to get into the business, even
in the midst of what is a tough time
for it financially. If motivated people
keep wanting to be journalists,
everything else will work itself out.
What gives you hope for your pro-
fession?
There's always room to grow, room to
change if I need to and room to do
new things. With the way media is
now, there's always room to learn and
always room to change. At Bonaven-
ture, I also learned not to settle for
mediocre, to always be at the top of
my game because it's always competi-
tive out there. When you say you're a
Bonaventure student or a Bonaven-
ture graduate, people expect different
things out of you. Be proud of what
you present to people.
What are the desired qualities
of someone entering your field
today?
Be curious, be resilient and take
risks. Find your own path and be a
good person along the way.
What gives you hope for your
profession?
Creativity will never fade away. The
evolution of technology is introduc-
ing new ways for us to communi-
cate, and advertising will always be
there to have some fun with it.