March 29, 2019
Inaugural ‘Alums in April’ to highlight mass communication and media arts graduates
CARBONDALE, Ill. – A new program featuring Southern Illinois University Carbondale alumni from the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts kicks off next week.
Important for students to connect with alumni
The graduates are alumni from the Department of Radio, Television, and Digital Media and the Department of Cinema and Photography. H.D. Motyl, chair of both departments within the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, said the program leads up to the SIU Distinguished Alumni ceremony, April 26, in the Student Center Auditorium.
“I think it’s important that our students connect to the Salukis who came before them,” Motyl said. “These are folks who are successful, following their media dreams as filmmakers and media professionals, and who have hewn a path for themselves, staying true to their craft or their creative endeavors.”
The events are open to the public.
Alumni have followed varied career paths
The alumni speakers are Tom Desch, owner of House Painter Media; Brittany Hardaway, a multimedia journalist with WICS News Channel 20 in Springfield; Brian Wilson, a news producer at WSIL Channel 3 in Carterville, and Ben Kalina, chief operating officer with Titmouse, Inc., a full-service animation production company.
The schedule is:
April 2 – 6 p.m., Dunn-Richmond Economic Development Center. Desch, a cinema and photography alumnus, will discuss his business and living his dream of making films and making change. Desch is an independent producer of documentaries. While on campus, he will visit Associate Professor Angela Aguayo’s Producing Independent Cinema class.
April 11 – Noon, Communications Building, Room 1032. Brittany Hardaway, a radio, television, and digital media alumna, will speak with students about preparing for their careers and how to persevere in making their media dreams come true. During her visit, Hardaway will visit an electronic journalism class taught by Joey Helleny, senior lecturer.
April 24 – Time, location TBD. Brian Wilson will screen his film work and talk about the process of making experimental films, visit a class and critique student work. Wilson is a cinema and photography alumnus who received a Master of Fine Arts from the college.
Arrangements are still underway for Kalina to visit with students in the college while he is on campus. Kalina, a 2003 cinema and photography graduate, is being honored by the SIU Alumni Association.
At Titmouse, Kalina oversees production and development across the company’s three studios in Los Angeles, New York City and Vancouver. Prior to working at Titmouse, Kalina worked in production at Warner Bros. Animation and VFX, helping to develop a digital pipeline and transitioning the studio from traditional paper animation to digital. In 2016, while serving as producer, Kalina shared a Daytime Emmy in the “Outstanding Children’s Animated Program” category for Amazon’s series “Niko and the Sword of Light.”