BIC students receive prestigious national scholarship awards

3/31/2014 Unknown 0 Comments

Two among BIC's first class of students, Frederick Garcia and Amber Jackson, have been selected -- among just 20 graduate students nationwide -- to receive The LAGRANT Foundation (TLF) scholarship for students who share the Foundation's mission of increasing ethnic diversity in the advertising, marketing and public relations industries.

Nancy R. Tag, BIC Program Director and CCNY Media & Communication Arts Professor said, "Our BIC student TLF scholarship recipients competed against students in long-established, high-profile graduate advertising, design, and MBA programs from leading universities throughout the country. Most of all, we are thrilled for Fred and Amber. We are also very proud that in our very first year, the BIC program has been acknowledged among the top tier of programs preparing the next generation of leaders in integrated communications professions."

Frederick Garcia
BIC MPS class of 2015Recipient of a 2014
LAGRANT Foundation Scholarship
Frederick Garcia received an Associate Degree from the Bronx Community College and his BA from CCNY from the Media & Communication Arts program in 2007. Mr. Garcia works at Exposure, an independent creative agency with offices in New York, London, and Tokyo. He previously was an Interpublic Group InterAct Associate (2007-2009) gaining experience at Gotham, Inc., Deutsch, Lowe Worldwide, and DraftFCB.




Amber Jackson
BIC MPS class of 2015
Recipient of a 2014
LAGRANT Foundation Scholarship



Amber Jackson received her BS in Journalism and Strategic Communications from the University of Kansas in 2012. Ms. Jackson has been an Interpublic Group InterAct Associate since June  2012, a two-year associate program which includes six-month  rotations at four IPG agencies. She previously was employed and  had internships with Victoria's Secret (Lawrence, Kansas),  ISNetworld (Dallas, Texas), and the Starlight Theatre (Kansas City,  Missouri).

The LAGRANT Foundation (TLF), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization based in Los Angeles, was established in 1998 by Mr. Kim L. Hunter to address the lack of diversity in the advertising, marketing and public relations fields. TLF provides scholarships, career development workshops, professional development, mentors and internships to African American/Black, American Indian/Native American, Asian American/Pacific Islander and Hispanic/Latino undergraduate and graduate students. Please learn more about our programs.

Since its establishment, TLF has awarded $1.56 million in scholarships to 221 ethnic minority students and has provided in excess of 278 internships and full-time employment.

BIC student selected to present research at SUNY multidisciplinary research conference

3/31/2014 Unknown 0 Comments

BIC student, Edmund Balogun's research paper initially prepared for his Research & Awareness BIC class has been selected for presentation in April 2014 at the State University of New York (SUNY) Graduate School at The College at Brockport third annual Master's Level Graduate Research Conference.

The SUNY Brockport Master's Level Graduate Research Conference attracts nearly 400 presenters from over 30 universities and enables students to hone their professional presentation skills and network with peer scholars and faculty.

Edmund Balogun
BIC MPS class of 2015
will present original research
at SUNY grad-student conference 
Mr. Balogun received his BS from the American University of Nigeria, in Information Systems, Database Design, and Web Integration in 2012.  He has had employment experience in information systems and business development with the Auchi Polytechnic in Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria and with JoSeg Associates Printing, Benin City, Nigeria.  Mr. Balogun had been active in engineering, international relations and entrepreneurship organizations at the American University of Nigeria.

Mr. Balogun has previously published on "The Role of Linguistics in the Detection and Prevention of Cyber Crimes in Nigeria," African Journal of Computing (Vol. 5, No. 3, May 2012);  "The Eradication of Complexities in Human Computer Interface Design for Increased System Usage Productivity," Information Systems and Development Informatics Journal (Vol. 3, No. 3, July 2013); and "Eradicating Complexity in Software Interface for Increased Productivity Software Engineering and Research Practice," WorldComp Conference Proceedings (Las Vegas, U.S.A., July 2012).

Deep insights from SXSW: "The purpose of an agency is to scare the s--- out of me."

3/29/2014 Unknown 0 Comments

Kate Rothen
Partner, SS+K
and BIC Professor
BIC's faculty member, Kate Rothen, Partner at SS+K, attended the 2014 SXSW conference and brought back to the CCNY BIC community a wide range of insights that are both challenging and a bit un-nerving.

In discussions with Professor Rothen -- in class and out-of-class-- we all caught up on the gossip, the celebrities, the parties, the business launches that are always part of SXSW  (how, every year, the conference just isn't nearly as good as it used to be -- and how amazingly different and promising it now is.)

Both national media and Kate Rothen's personal insights were in agreement on one point: we are just beginning to feel and understand the impact of technological and data innovation for marketing.  If you're congratulating yourself on "how far we've come and what we've now achieved," then you really don't understand the real challenge for marketing -- and for Communication.

The old world: Communications technological channels controlled by corporations provided "slots" / openings for marketers to drop in messages that will reach many people.  Attractive, beautiful, interesting, attention-grabbing images, music, text, etc.  Marketing professions filled communications corporations' buckets with good info or snake oil.  It's all about Reach and Frequency.

The world of the future: Communications technological channels controlled by corporations will provide "slots" / openings for marketers to drop in messages that will reach the One Right Person who Really Needs That Product Now.  Marketing professions will need to fill the the communications businesses' buckets with real info, the right info for that person and situation.  Reach and Frequency will be irrelevant (or they will be about entertainment, not much relevant to marketing). What we will care about is real, usable information for that right person, at that right time.

Check out this Leo Burnett Wildfire video about the power and specificity of marketing of the future.

Ty Montague shares "True Stories" with BICsters

3/14/2014 Unknown 0 Comments


Ty Montague guest lectures in BIC's Brand Experience course.
This semester's foundational course in Brand Experience, taught by MediaLink's CMO Dee Salomon, explores methods of creating brand experience in physical, digital, traditional and experimental ways as it delves into the coordinated application of mass, personal and social media. Students' own experiences in this course have included lectures, trips to museums, and a real life encounter with True Story author, Ty Montague.


The March 10th guest lecture up on City College's campus took on a surreal nature since students have been reading True Story: How to Combine Story and Action to Build Your Business as a framework for their studies. The current CEO of co:collective and former Co-President, Chief Creative Officer of JWT North America provided his take on innovation, leadership, business transformation and the power of story. He also autographed copies of the BIC course "textbook" insuring its place in students' professional libraries.

Read more about Ty Montague in this Fast Company article.

BIC featured as "HOT" grad program in CUNY

3/14/2014 Unknown 0 Comments



The latest edition of CUNY Matters, the monthly newsletter for the City University of New York, showcases the BIC program among the "dozens of new and innovative graduate programs being offered to better prepare students for careers in the emerging areas of technology, medicine, public health, advertising, film, and digital media."  As the largest the largest urban university in the country and third largest university system in the nation (behind SUNY and California State University system), CUNY has over 800 graduate degree programs in its 24 colleges. 

The article (seen here http://www.cuny.edu/news/publications/cm-winter14.pdf on page six and seven) features photos of BIC students making final presentations for foundation course Idea Development. It also includes commentary from Program Director Nancy Tag and BIC students:  “We’re living in a visual society and the industry is changing very quickly, and so is the way people consume information,” said Nancy R. Tag, program director of BIC. “We needed to create a program that brings all the disciplines together, so that creative [people] understand the data [personnel] in this data-driven world.”

Cassondra Bazelow, a student in the BIC masters program, said she appreciates the “real world” experience in the curriculum. Industry professionals assisted in creating the curriculum and also serve as adjunct faculty, guest lecturers and project advisers.

 “Between the people instructing the courses and the guest lecturers that they invite, the students at BIC have access to the knowledge of working professionals relevant in their fields,” she said.

BIC's "Day of Curiosity" draws a crowd

3/08/2014 Unknown 0 Comments

The first ever BIC Open House was held on February 27th and welcomed over 30 candidates to City College to tour the campus, meet BIC program director and faculty, and experience life as a "BICster."

CEO Ketchum NA Barri Rafferty
BIC's "Day of Curiosity" kicked off at noon where an SRO crowd attended MCA's "Lunch w/Leaders" lecture featuring CEO of Ketchum North America and BIC Advisory Board Member Barri Rafferty who eloquently spoke about her recent trip to The World Economic Forum in Davos and 8 Global Trends Impacting Communications (look for a full write-up soon).

Curious candidates then took a tour of the City College campus (led by BIC student, Nehal Mahmoud) which features the first Gothic-style buildings designed for an American college. For the more curious among us, there's an excellent exhibit currently at the CCNY School of Architecture about George Post's architectural masterwork. Or read the article, "The Very Model of a University," in The New York Times link HERE.

The West Gate of the Gothic Quad

At 5PM, BIC Program Director Nancy Tag was joined by BIC faculty Gerardo Blumenkrantz and Frank Walton for an Info Session on BIC. Starting with "high tea" and ending with a Q&A, curious candidates heard about BIC's 36-credit, portfolio-driven curriculum and unique approach to teaching branding and integrated communications. The audience discovered why BIC could only happen here at City College -- where multi-cultural energy is part of our DNA, access to academic excellence is integral to CCNY's mission, and our location in the media capital of the world goes beyond our proximity to midtown, but is embodied by our amazing adjunct faculty, lecture series, advisors, etc. 

Program Director Nancy Tag leads the Info Session

Our ever-curious guests were then invited to stick around and join Professor Frank Walton's BIC class "Branding Issues & Intangibles" in the Public Relations course sequence to learn alongside BIC students about country branding -- or location marketing. Starting with a quick summary of the course to date, Professor Walton (who also heads the BIC public relations track) then asked students to consider such questions as "who owns Brooklyn -- or Times Square?" "how can you leverage the attributes of a place?" and "how can branding make us appreciate the value of origin?" The lecture took students around the globe from upstate New York to the Rio Olympics in 2016.