Students in the West Virginia Wesleyan College Department of Communication shared their final Capstone projects and updates about what the Communication Department has to offer as part of their Winter Showcase recently.

Faith Yoho presented “Be Not Afraid of Growing Slowly: Be Afraid Only of Standing Still: Exploring Changes to the Communication Department Through Brand Books, Social Media Campaigns and Advertisements.” By creating this public relations campaign, Yoho hopes to emphasize that the Communication Department offers a variety of opportunities to analyze media, develop media literacy skills and have hands-on experiences that can enhance your time here at WVWC.

Sarah McCall provided a look at her Rare Beauty Advertising Plan. Through a SWOT analysis of Selena Gomez’s beauty company, McCall identified the key themes for her brand messaging and created an advertising strategy and creative plan.

Peter D’Avanzo presented his capstone project “Does Social Media Have an Impact on College Students’ Mental Health and Academic Performance?” D’Avanzo’s research project focused on interviewing college students to explore how their social media use impacts their academic performance.

Alexis Abalos shared an analysis of “Sports Contracts and Player Performance.” Using social learning theory and social exchange theory, Abalos’ textual analysis of sports contracts reviewed both the importance of and the effects from sports contracts and Name, Image, Likeness (NILs).

D’Avanzo and Remmy Lohr shared updates to The Pharos, WVWC’s student-led newspaper. In addition to the paper continuing to be printed online, The Pharos is now back to being offered in print. This is the first time the paper is being printed since COVID.

Lastly, Yoho presented her Ledford Scholar Scholars Project “This is the Skin of a Toxic Male, Bella! Observing Toxic Masculinity Within the Twilight Series.” This competitively selected research project gave Yoho the opportunity to interview Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X women to better understand their responses to the toxic behavior that male characters portrayed in the Twilight series films.

“This Winter Showcase was an excellent example of all the hard work and dedication of our students during the fall semester” said Dr. Nancy Bressler, Chair of the Communication Department. “We wanted to demonstrate our students intriguing research, as well as the innovative marketing and public relations projects they created. The Pharos newspaper is also even better than ever with an editorial board dedicated to its success. These projects exhibit the types of hands-on experiences that students in the Communication Department have that they can then share with their future employers” Bressler said.