Dozens of students and advisers from 12 area high schools attended the Jandoli School of Communication’s 2023 Communications Day at St. Bonaventure University Friday, April 21.

“We could not have had a better day for CommDay with beautiful weather to welcome nearly 200 students and teachers to campus,” said Aaron Chimbel, dean of the Jandoli School. “I hope they enjoyed this fantastic day as much as I did, and, more importantly, I hope they learned how exciting it is to explore the field of communication.”

CommDay, originally called Press Day, has a long history at St. Bonaventure dating back to 1936. Since 1987, it has been known as Communications Day.

This year, students participated in workshops on writing, disinformation, photography, public relations, media ethics, local news, sports writing, sports broadcasting and a special live broadcast journalism experience with SBU-TV, the student news station.

SBU alumna Shannon Dan, ’01, executive vice president of innovation at Intersport, a media and marketing company in Chicago, delivered they keynote address.

Students had the opportunity to submit their best work for the CommDay competition in video, photography and writing categories.

Dean Chimbel announced the following winners, who will be granted scholarships if they attend St. Bonaventure. The scholarships will be continued each year up to four years for students who major in one of the Jandoli School undergrad programs.

Recipients are:

Best Photography
$500 scholarship for students attending St. Bonaventure
CA BOCES Career and Technical Education Center at Olean
“Thomas Merton”
Sam Balcerzak

Best Video
$500 scholarship for students attending St. Bonaventure
Salamanca High School
“One Breath at a Time”
Grace Hodara
Izabella Milks
Corey Bish

Best Writing
$500 scholarship for students attending St. Bonaventure
Corry High School
“The epidemic of being chronically online.”
Emma Minnick

Best in Show
$1,000 Scholarship for students attending St. Bonaventure
CA BOCES Career and Technical Education Center at Olean
Photography
Josh Gardner
Sam Balcerzak
Alicia Crimmins
Lauren Ralston