The BIC Portfolio Defense

5/29/2015 Unknown 0 Comments

After the BIC graduation party, and just before commencement, the BIC Class of 2015 had to meet one last criteria before receiving the MPS degree: the Final Portfolio Defense. Each student presented a body of work exemplifying their two year study at BIC. These timed presentations were held on May 28th before panels of industry judges who based their scores on three criteria: content, storytelling, and showcase. Our March Portfolio Bootcamp as well as yearlong portfolio checks, tweaks, and presentation practice all paid off -- every single student passed! 


Many thanks to industry colleagues who served as Portfolio Defense Judges and mentors: John ColquhounMichael DoodyJake KahanaChad OliverDavid OlsenWill ParkerBrian PlumbRichard RappDonna RenellaMichelle RowleyMonique TapieLuba Tolkachyov, and Yury Vargas. Their invaluable feedback and constructive criticism will surely enhance each student's portfolio as they develop them over the course of their careers. 


Announcing The Desmond Maxwell "Cause + Charisma" Scholarship

5/28/2015 Unknown 0 Comments

A few weeks into the 2015 Spring semester, BIC received the devastating news that beloved BICster, Desmond Maxwell, had passed away. As part of the inaugural BIC class, Desmond was a caring friend and mentor to classmates, faculty, and BIC administrators. His dynamic personality, good nature, and commitment to good causes was admired and appreciated by all. 

In his personal life, Desmond was a proud Harlemite and father. He was a graduate of City College who became a media and marketing professional after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was extremely enthusiastic about receiving his Master's and being a member of BIC's inaugural class. 

Shortly after the news of his passing, BIC Program Director Nancy Tag and the Class of 2015 embarked on a fund raising campaign to establish a scholarship in Desmond's honor. The Desmond Maxwell Cause + Charisma Scholarship was officially unveiled on May 27th during the BIC Graduation + Recruitment Party, with a fund raising achievement in excess of $50,000. This scholarship in honor of Dez will ensure that future BIC students will be able to benefit from the college that he so loved. 

A web page is under development where our AMAZING list of donors will be acknowledged and where contributions can be accepted.  


Spring 2015 Capstone Client: Univision

5/25/2015 Unknown 0 Comments

On May 21st in Shepard Hall, BIC Class of 2015 pitched their 360-degree integrated marketing communications campaigns to its for-profit capstone client, Univision Communication Inc. (UCI), the largest Spanish speaking network in the world. Students were divided into three competing teams to build on existing brand equity and develop compelling communications materials to attract first time advertisers to UCI. 




After months of intense research, strategic mapping, and campaign development, representatives fromUCI were invited to hear each pitch and judge campaign presentations. Among those in attendance were Diana Terry Rojas, VP, Brand Development and Corporate Marketing, and five UCI colleagues across marketing, brand development, and communications. The UCI representatives were invited to evaluate all three campaigns and after a long deliberation declared team Roundtable's "Imagine a World" campaign the winner. 




View more photos from the 2015 Capstone Presentations in our Gallery.

Big BIC Welcome to Professor Angela Chitkara

5/08/2015 Unknown 0 Comments

BIC is excited to announce the appointment of Angela Chitkara as MCA Assistant Professor and BIC Public Relations Track Director. With graduate degrees from City University in London and Columbia University where she received a Master of International Affairs, her background as a journalist and public relations practitioner makes her perfectly poised to lead BIC students into the future of cross-disciplinary and global communications. She has been able to align her broad skills and expertise to guide her transition into the robust and relevant world of Public Relations on a local, national, and global level.  

Her work has taken Angela to the far corners of the world and back. It brought her to her ancestral land, India, to work as a journalist with CNBC.  It then brought her back to the USA where she became an entrepreneur, starting her own PR firm, which included non-profit work in the village where Angela's maternal grandfather started a grammar school after the partition between India and Pakistan. As she states it: "This is globalization."

BIC Advisory Board Members Win Big at the 2015SABRE Awards

5/06/2015 Unknown 0 Comments

 Last night, Finn Partners was awarded the title of "Best Mid-sized PR Firm, 2015" at the Sabre PR Awards Ceremony.
Congrats to Individual Achievement recipient @flahertyrob#sabreawards

Barri Rafferty

Rob Flaherty
CEO and a Senior Partner of Ketchum. Explorer.


http://www.holmesreport.com/events-awards/sabre-awards/sabre-awards-americas

BICsters Win Honorable Mention in CCNY Human Rights Competition

5/05/2015 Unknown 0 Comments

BICsters Andy Kwan, Himani Gupta, Naushika Perera with
BIC Professor + Creative Track Advisor Gerardo Blumenkrantz.
Last night, three BIC students were awarded Honorable Mention during the 2nd Annual Human Rights Poster Contest ceremony organized by the CCNY Human Rights Forum. 

Andy KwanHimani Gupta, and Naushika Perera were each honored with certificates during the awards ceremony held at CCNY’s Center for Worker Education. Their human rights themed posters will become part of the permanent gallery at the center.

For the past two years, CUNY has sponsored the Human Rights Poster Contest to highlight the inherent value of each person based on principles of dignity, equality and mutual respect, which are shared across cultures, religions and philosophies. The competition calls for poster submissions from across the entire CUNY university system that address the general topic of human rights or any one of the 30 articles comprising the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Vince Boudreau, Dean of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership
presents certificates of honorable mention.

BIC students Andy Kwan and Himani Gupta (BIC 2016) joined the #whyistayed #whyileft conversation by focusing their poster on domestic violence.  

Naushika Perera (BIC 2017) invoked the right to clean water and sanitation with her powerful image of a child.
























You can view past submissions and winning posters created by CUNY students in support of human rights issues on the CCNY Human Rights Forum website.