Michael Bernardini (Marist, '13) Selected as Fall '12 COMMARTS Intern

Michael Bernardini

The Marist College School of Communication and the Arts has announced selection of communication major Michael Bernardini (’13) as the school’s fall 2012 communication intern. Michael has an academic concentration in public relations and a minor in global studies.

Michael (on LinkedIn) will begin his intern duties when the fall semester convenes on August 27. As the school’s intern, he will provide direct support to Dean Steven Ralston, faculty, staff, and contract employees. He will also promote awareness of the school’s student activities and accomplishments. His duties will include assisting with management of public relations, advertising, marketing and other strategic communication functions that contribute to strong relationships with the school’s key audiences.

Michael, a resident of Lansdale, PA, is a 2009 graduate of Perkiomen Valley High School in Collegeville, PA. In addition to his academic accomplishments, he currently serves as the vice-president of Marist’s Red Foxes Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). He will serve as president of the chapter during the next academic year.

Michael is also employed by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion (the Marist Poll) and he has completed communication internships with Say Communications (healthcare, London, England); Sprout Creek Farm (social media, Poughkeepsie, NY); and Saint Francis Hospital and Health Centers (Poughkeepsie, NY).

Congratulations to Michael and all of this semester’s applicants for this position. All students were well qualified, with impressive resumes, which made for an extremely challenging selection process.

Any students interested in applying for future positions as the school’s communication intern should contact me at mark.vandyke@marist.edu.

Marist Poll Student Worker Saves a Life

From Left: Jason Sokolowski, Bobby
Berlin, Daniela Charter

Congratulations to Marist Poll field supervisor Daniela Charter and Marist College communication major Jason Sokolowski for saving a life.

While working one of his shifts for the Marist Poll on the evening of April 16, Jason's random call -- one of hundreds that he might make in a night -- woke up Bobby Berlin of Manhattan. Berlin's speech was slurred and her answers to Jason's questions about Mayor Bloomberg didn't make sense. Sokolowski, who lost a close high-school friend to a diabetic attack last November, sensed that something was wrong and again asked Berlin, "Are you O.K.?"

A recording of the call documented Berlin responding, "Ahh, what? Awww, wuh."

Sokolowski asked again, "Are you O.K., mam?"

Berlin replied, "No." 

Click image to listen to YNN report and
audio of actual Marist Poll phone call.


At that point Sokolowski called in his supervisor, Daniela Charter, a four-year veteran of the Marist Poll. Suspecting that Ms. Berlin was experiencing a medical emergency, the team called Dutchess County, N.Y., 911 emergency services, who connected with Manhattan emergency services, who then traced Berlin's phone number. Arriving at her apartment, Manhattan first responders found Berlin nearing a diabetic coma. Following treatment, she has since recovered and is now back in her apartment.

Asked about the call, Bobby Berlin said, "If something hadn't been done, I don't think I would have made it until morning."

Remaining humble about his role in saving Bobby Berlin's life, Jason Sokolowski chalked up the incident to a "perfect storm" of random chances. "It all came together for her," Sokolowski concluded. "It just wasn't her time to go."

Jason Sokolowski is a Marist College junior in the School of Communication and the Arts. He has an academic concentration in advertising with a minor in psychology.

The Marist Institute for Public Opinion, better known as the Marist Poll, is a survey research center located at Marist College. Founded in 1978, the institute measures public opinion on a wide variety of topics at the local, regional, state, and national level. The data collected by the Poll are widely reported by journalists and analysts around the world.

For me, students like Jason Sokolowski and staff members like Daniela Charter are just one of the many rewards of teaching and studying at Marist College. Go Red Foxes!

News reports by YNN TV's John Wagner and NBC-TV4 New York's Melissa Russo contributed to this blog post. See additional stories and photographs by the Washington Post, the Poughkeepsie Journal, and Marist College Public Affairs.

PR Professional Lecturer Donohue Named Marist COMMARTS Faculty Member of the Year

Marist College's Jennie Donohue

The Marist Student Government Association (SGA) has selected Jennie Donohue, professional lecturer in public relations, as its 2011-2012 School of Communication and the Arts Faculty Member of the Year. Students across the Marist campus nominated deserving faculty members for this award during the spring 2012 elections for SGA.

Donohue joined the full-time faculty at Marist College in the fall of 2010. She is an award-winning communication professional with more than two decades of industry experience. Among other responsibilities, she serves as the faculty adviser to the college’s Red Foxes Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America. She is also a charter member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Hudson Valley Interest Group, which is in the process of forming the newest chapter in the PRSA, the world's largest professional organization of public relations practitioners.

I have had the pleasure of working closely with Jennie since her arrival at Marist in 2010. In the short time she has been on our faculty, she has energized the teaching of our public relations courses, established guest speaker program that introduces students to some of the nation's leading public relations professionals, guided the rapid growth and development of Marist's PRSSA chapter, helped the PRSSA chapter launch a student-run communication agency, and helped modernize the college's public relations curriculum.

I can think of no candidate more worthy of this year's award. Please join me in congratulating Jennie Donohue on this special recognition!

Expert Lessons in Strategic Communication

I  was privileged to have two brilliant guest speakers join my strategic communication course at the U.S. Army War College (Carlisle, PA) over the last few days. The course is one of several electives offered by the Center for Strategic Leadership this spring to senior military officers and government civilians from the United States and 66 other nations. Fellow faculty members Dennis Murphy and Ben Leitzel assist in teaching our strategic communication course to eight senior military and government service students from the United States, Zambia, Poland, and Lithuania.

Rear Admiral Hal Pittman

On March 30, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Hal Pittman (biography) talked to students about the strategic communication program conducted by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) based in Kabul, Afghanistan. Rear Admiral Pittman, a U.S. Navy public affairs officer based at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, FL, just returned from one year in Afghanistan as the ISAF Deputy Chief of Staff for Communication. He provided our class with a fascinating briefing on what has to rank as one of the most sophisticated and complex political-military strategic communication programs achieved to date.

I described his briefing in more detail on the DIME Blog of the Center for Strategic Leadership, U.S. Army War College. Click the following link to read my post. You can also click this link to read and download an unclassified set of slides that Rear Admiral Pittman used to illustrate his briefing about the ISAF strategic communication program.

On April 10, our class hosted a visit by Mr. Ron Rhody (biography), an award-winning journalist, book author, corporate public relations executive, and consultant to Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Rhody is also a member of the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Communication Council, which includes senior counselors like Harold Burson, founder and chairman of Burson-Marsteller; and Ed Block, founding director of the Arthur Page Society. Mr. Rhody was escorted by Dr. Frank Kalupa, Professor of Communication Studies, James Madison University. Dr. Kalupa served as the 2010-2011 Visiting Professor of Strategic Communication at the Center of Strategic Leadership, U.S. Army War College.

Mr. Ron Rhody

Mr. Rhody offered an insightful description of strategic communication from the perspective of corporate communication. This lesson served as a valuable companion to what we teach our students about government strategic communication. First, strategic communication is an essential senior leader function. According to Mr. Rhody, “I can’t think of a Fortune 500 company today that doesn’t count strategic communications as a crucial part of its overall operating plan.” Mr. Rhody elaborated that the key to successful operations is creating by-in among strategic audiences, or “the ability to understand your constituents’ wants and needs and find ways to associate their interests with your actions.” Furthermore, “The strongest single tool for achieving this is communication.”

This leads to the goal of corporate strategic communication: “to get people to do something, not do something, or let us [the corporation] do something…. Because they see how their self-interest is served.”

I am an advocate of research, planning, and evaluation in communication strategy. Communication is more than simply pumping out tactical messages. Therefore, I was gratified to hear Mr. Rhody stress the importance of the planning process in strategic communication. Here is his list of planning essentials: 

1. Be clear on the objective.
2. Be clear on who must be reached.
3. Determine what the audience needs to know, or think, or believe in order to hold opinions or take actions that support your objective.
4. Fashion messages and assemble information that will be persuasive and motivating to specific audiences; and then re-enforce those messages with actions that validate them (e.g., do what you say you will do).
5. Set an action timetable and provide sufficient resources (money, people, etc.).
6. Assign responsibilities to put the plan into action, then monitor, evaluate, and adjust as needed. 

In closing, I will share some universal words of wisdom provided by Mr. Rhody, which have obviously contributed in no small way to his success. This advice applies equally well to public relations as it does to strategic communication, so students, take note:

1. Always assume that anything that can go wrong will, so be prepared.
2. Make sure you have the facts.
3. Take the initiative and tell what you know, when you know it.
4. Get all the bad news out as rapidly as possible … or suffer dying by a thousand cuts.
5. Tell it straight … avoid spin.
6. Take the story directly to your constituents, in your words, with your facts.
7. Try to do what’s right.

If you are wondering how to achieve the kinds of success enjoyed by experts like Rear Admiral Pittman and Mr. Rhody, here’s a suggestion: become a student, study them, and follow their advice. If it works for them, it probably will work for you, too. Click this link for a copy of presentation slides provided by Rear Admiral Pittman. Click the following link for a copy of Mr. Rhody's talking points. You can also follow Rear Admiral Pittman on Facebook and Mr. Rhody on his blog.