The social media interns for the Communication and Media Studies Department (CMS) have created and launched an Instagram account with the handle @CortlandCMS. Lucy Costello, Jessica Gonzalez, Grace LaRiviere, and Bree Rossi are the interns.
The Instagram page features internship opportunities for students, history about CMS, as well as profiles of CMS professors.
“The CMS Instagram account is important for the department because it highlights the opportunities that the SUNY Cortland Communicatons and Media Studies Departments offer as well as spread awareness for the great students and staff a part of it,” said Costello. “Our goal is to increase our presence as a thriving major on campus with a variety of opportunities and areas of study to explore.”
In an effort to get students involved and gain more followers of the account, a contest was created. Over 100 flyers were created with a QR code that leads students to the CMS Instagram page when scanned. They created four flyers with metallic gold stickers on them, but the grand prize flyer had a golden “C” on it.
The rules for the scavenger hunt-like contest were to search in the campus buildings for flyers with the gold sticker or the golden “C”. Once the golden flyer was found, students were to take a selfie with the flyer and quickly DM it to the Instagram account for verification.
The first-place winner was announced early in the contest.
Alex Locke-Wright, a media production major with a minor in cinema studies had his selfie with the golden flyer posted to the CMS account’s Instagram story. No other winners have been announced as of May 2, 3:40 p.m.
Prizes for the winners were a SUNY Cortland black hoodie, a cotton long sleeve t-shirt with the Cortland logo and a college thermal water bottle donated by the Campus Store.
An opening day reception was held from 12-1:30 p.m. on Monday, May 2 in the second-floor lounge area of Van Hoesen Hall. There were cupcakes, juice boxes, chips and small giveaways for students that attended. Pop culture trivia was even played with students passing by.
The CMS social media interns are also working on a website for the department that will be released later this week.
LaRiviere said the four of them have been perfecting the site before its upcoming release.
“Having a website for the Communication and Media Studies department, like Instagram, will help incoming students see what being a communications major at Cortland will be like,” said LaRiviere. “For current students they can see what is going on in the department, what types of jobs they can have in the future and learn about all the clubs within the department.”
Make sure to scan the QR code to follow @CortlandCMS.