TCNJ News
For Immediate Release
November 14, 2005
TCNJ Students Garner National Communication Studies Awards
EWING, NJ…Three Communications Studies students and members of Lambda Pi Eta Communication Studies Honor Society at The College of New Jersey won national and international recognition at the 2005 Stephen A. Smith Awards, winning best co-authored student paper in the nation. Stefanie Gratale (Fort Lee) will be presenting the paper at a ceremony at 2 p.m. on November 18 at the annual conference of the National Communication Association (NCA) in Boston. Their paper, titled "Cross-national Newspaper Coverage of the United Nations Fight Against AIDS: A Community Structure Approach,” examined themes in worldwide news coverage of the United Nations’ efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.
Gratale is a senior communications major. She plans to attend graduate school next fall, “possibly for public administration,” she said.
Jennifer Hagert (Hasbrouck Heights) graduated from TCNJ in 2005. She is currently employed full-time with the New Jersey Nets as a coordinator and executive assistant in the corporate sponsorship department, working directly with the executive director of corporate partnerships and the vice president of media sales and broadcast to create sponsorship sales proposals. She plans on pursuing her MBA in marketing within the next few years.
Laura Dey (Hamilton Square) also graduated in 2005. She is currently working with Sensors Unlimited-Goodrich Corporation as an accounts payable/receivable specialist..
Two Stephen A. Smith Awards are granted annually to communications studies students for the best individual and group papers on communications topics. The award is named in honor of Dr. Stephen A. Smith of the University of Arkansas, the founder of Lambda Pi Eta. For their superior academic work, the winners will receive a plaque and a check for $100.
About The College of New Jersey
TCNJ currently is ranked as one of the 75 "Most Competitive" schools in the nation by Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, is rated the No. 1 public institution in the northern region of the country by U.S. News & World Report, and is one of Kiplinger's Personal Finance's top educational values in the country. In 2006, the College joined an elite group of institutions when it was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Fewer than 10 percent of the nation's colleges and universities share this honor.
