Portfolio Bootcamp Reboot: A BIC Tradition Returns in 2021

4/29/2021 Unknown 0 Comments

Action from a previous Portfolio Bootcamp.

Each year, BIC follows its annual recruiting event, the BIC PiP (Portfolios-in-Progress), with a weeklong Portfolio Bootcamp, where graduating students get the chance to work intensely on their portfolios with the help of visiting professionals who provide design, content, and storytelling expertise. Sadly, last year's Portfolio Bootcamp was cancelled due to the pandemic, but it returned this year in a virtual format from March 22nd to the 25th. In keeping with the mood of the times, the week was re-dubbed Portfolio Therapy with new opportunities for reflection, celebration, and innovation, including an Open Mic Night for students and War Stories from alumni. Despite being virtual, BICsters were still able to roll up their sleeves and take their portfolios to the next level.  

Our professional mentors offered invaluable expertise and substantive feedback giving BIC students all the insider tips, trick, and tools they'll need to perfect their portfolios for what we expect will be standout presentations on Portfolio Thesis Defense day June 1, 2021.

A BIG BIC THANKS to our amazing experts: Roberto Bernasconi, Co-Founder Bardo Industries, Mark Brooks, Brand Director of Adobe 99U, Laura Giraudo, Creative Director of Bardo Industries, Gustavo Stecher, Founder of Menos es Mas, Leandro Incetta, UX/UI, Senior Product Designer, Xero, Yoni Weiss, Graphic Designer, Chelsea Campbell, Experiential Creative Director at Pandora Media, Monique Naoum, User Experience Consultant, Gustavo Asman, SVP Creative Director, Pyramid Communications, Michael Bruno, Head of Strategy at Weber Shandwick, Jeannie Huang, Experience Design Manager at Adobe, Mark Robin, Senior Creative Lead, Video Director of Bloomberg Media Group, George Logothetis, Freelance Creative Director, and Babak Rassi, Film/Video Editor, CCNY Professor.

Action from a previous Portfolio Bootcamp.

We were especially excited to welcome back some BIC alums who are now successful pros -- and truly know how to bring BIC portfolios to life. Joining us for the final session Alumni War Stories: Plus Troubleshooting, was Ray Sein BIC '20, Alex Suazo BIC '15, Andy Kwan BIC '16, Cassondra Bazelow BIC '16, LaToya Heron BIC '19, Jose Fresan BIC '20, Lorenzo Lasagna BIC '20, Melissa Orr BIC '20, and Natalie Alcide BIC '19. 

Action from a previous Portfolio Bootcamp.

A Big BIC thank you to all our BICsters for their tenacity, perseverance, and dedication to developing their portfolios. We can't wait to see the work you defend in June! 

BIC Prof Sandra Stahl's “The Art & Craft of PR” en español

4/20/2021 Unknown 0 Comments



BIC BIC Brava to Founding BIC faculty member and Professor Sandra Stahl whose award-winning book The Art & Craft of PR has been expanded into Spanish via Cuantica Activa Audiolibros and is now available as an audiobook on 300 platforms and retailers -- Audible, Storytel, Audibooks, AudioTeka, Cuantica. The Art & Craft of PR has been recommended or required reading in PR and marketing courses at universities around the world. 

"My hope, from the beginning, for The Art & Craft of PR was to offer a forward-looking perspective about public relations that connected with current practitioners and those considering entering the field. It is very exciting to expand its reach to Spanish-speaking audiences around the world. As an audiobook, Arte y Oficio de las Relaciones Publicas is a really fun listen-- it not only features a great reader who brings to life the ideas, the stories and anecdotes, there's also music and a terrific translation." said Sandra. 

Drawing on decades of experience in agency and corporate positions, The Art & Craft of PR is a user’s manual of skills that distinguish PR as integral to meeting an organization's needs and business challenges. Her book includes insights from communications leaders at corporate, agency, and industry powerhouses including Burson-Marsteller, Chevron, Edelman, Levi-Strauss, and the Holmes Report. You can read a review of the book here.

Sandra is the co-founder of jacobstahl, a full-service in-house PR agency which was recently acquired by Global Independent PR agency, Ruder Finn. She is a founding faculty at BIC and teaches the Branding Influentials course. Sandra guest lectures frequently at schools and conferences around the world. The Art & Craft of PR has won numerous awards since publication in 2018 and is on the BookAuthority 21 Best New Public Relations Books to Read in 2020.

Congratulations, Sandra!

BICsters Impress Talent Seekers at the Virtual BIC PiP 2021

4/20/2021 Unknown 0 Comments


Each Spring, our annual recruiting event, the BIC PiP, showcases the talents of soon-to-be graduates who present their Portfolios-in-Progress to a roomful of industry recruiters, talent seekers, and career catalysts. BICsters in the Management/Planning, Public Relations, and Creative Tracks use the PiP to not only expose their thinking to recruiters, but use the feedback to elevate their portfolios for BIC's Portfolio Thesis Defense in June. 

This year, BIC held the PiP remotely via Zoom which limited the number of participants. But students were still inspired by an engaged group of recruiters from companies such as TBWA\Chiat\Day, TBWA\WorldwideFleishmanHillard, Jack Morton Worldwide, Google, Ogilvy, VMLY&R, BBH, BCW Global, DayOne Agency, DiMassimo Goldstein, Mother, Ruder Finn, Hunter, Fenton, McGarrah Jessee, MRM, the community, The Martin Agency, W2O Group, Weber Shandwick, Concentric Health Experience, DDB, DeVries GlobalGolin, Digitas North America and StrawberryFrog

BIC is the only academic program with the chutzpah to give recruiters a sneak peek at portfolios prior to completion. This allows them to cultivate talent before the portfolios hit the market. During the two and a half hour event, recruiters from top agencies and companies had the opportunity to tap into the agile thinking, sharp skills, and dynamic personalities of 30 cross-disciplinary BIC students from the Class of 2021 as they went from breakout room to breakout room -- like speed dating, only with a professional spin.

Action from a previous BIC PiP

A big BIC thanks to all our recruiters and BICsters for their energy, feedback, and — most of all — their curiosity. For those who missed BIC’s 2021 PiP Recruiting Event, there’s always next year...!

BICsters Following In The Footsteps of BICsters

4/14/2021 Unknown 0 Comments



They say the communications industry is small and everyone knows everyone. Well it's even smaller in the BIC universe.

Current BICster Anmol Dhamrait BIC ' 22 just scored a role as Brand Coordinator at Patients & Purpose, an healthcare advertising agency that is part of Omnicom Health Group. Anmol follows in the footsteps of BIC alum Marta Mugica Telleria BIC ' 17 who was an Art Director at Patients and Purpose where she worked for clients such as Vertex, AstraZeneca and Fintepla. While Marta has now transitioned to a new role as an Art Supervisor at McCann Health New York, it's great to see our BICsters following in each other's footsteps and demonstrating the power of a BIC degree both during and after the program. 

Patients and Purpose is as full service as it gets, working on all kinds of health brands—from pre-launch to post-LOE, rare to common, and DTP to DTC. By utilizing future-focused capabilities and rich, deep experience, Patients and Purpose move brands and their customers forward. You can learn more about them here

Brava, ladies!

ONLY A FEW SPOTS LEFT >> Apply to BIC by April 25th!

4/13/2021 Unknown 0 Comments


Good news! Starting April 16th, BIC will have rolling admissions through April 25th. There are only a few spots left. So take a deep breath. You got this!! 

ABOUT BIC: the Graduate Program in Branding + Integrated Communications at City College.

Supercharged by the diverse, dynamic energy of the world's media capital, BIC is both of the moment and about the future. It's a grad program. A think tank. An executive training ground. BIC is where you roll up your sleeves and figure out how communication creates meaning and adds value: to a company, for the consumer, in society.

Our unique 36-credit, portfolio-driven master's degree program combines theory and practice in an interdisciplinary, multi-tracked curriculum. Who are BICsters? Idea catalysts. Culture creators. Social Do-Gooders. Communication strategists. Creative managers. PR activators. Conceptualizers. Wordsmiths. Designers. Brand galvanizers. Problem solvers. Forward thinkers. Lateral thinkers. Deep thinkers. Non-Bloviators...

Curious? Apply here

BIC Program Director Nancy R. Tag Talks Current Job Market Trends

4/08/2021 Unknown 0 Comments



Given everything that has happened in the world, aspiring graduates are looking for advice on how to navigate the job market and an uncertain economic climate. BIC Program Director and Professor Nancy R. Tag spoke to Zippia to give her take on where the job market for recent graduates is heading, as well as how young graduates entering the industry can be adequately prepared. Her biggest piece of advice: "Stay curious. The communications industry evolves so rapidly that the ability to absorb and apply new information is critical to being successful and making an impact." 

Read the full article here.

Women of Martech Spotlight: BICster Megan Fullagar

4/07/2021 Unknown 0 Comments


“No matter what I’m honed in on, I constantly collaborate with my team to ensure we’ve thought through multiple angles. It’s refreshing to work with such an inspiring and hard-working group of women.” - Megan Fullagar BIC ’16

Brava to Megan Fullagar BIC ’16 who has been featured in Women of Martech's Success Spotlight! After graduating from BIC in 2016, Megan has worked as a Marketing & Communications Manager at FreeWheel and Marketing Director at Penthera. Currently, Megan is putting her entrepreneurial chops to work as Marketing Director at StitcherAds, a tech start-up focused on enhancing social ads (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok) through personalization and optimization

Click here to learn more about how Megan went from architecture to marketing to a Master's Degree at CCNY in the BIC program, the importance of collaboration, the impact of mobile on Martech and finally her advice for other women in the industry. 

Spring Forward >> BICsters Rising

4/02/2021 Unknown 0 Comments


As the temperatures rise and flowers begin to bloom, BIC alumni Sur, Kenneth, and Megan are springing into new roles. 

Surabhi Govindarajan BIC ’18 is now Cultural Strategist at VMLY&R where she is responsible for analyzing signals of change -- fast and slow, as well as mining hyper-local cultural stories for market cities across the globe. Sur's human-centered approach for building stories, blended with a background in architecture, design and experiential, will be put to good use as VMLY&R reimagines commerce. She's building on her previous position at Geometry North America which was recently integrated into VMLY&R.

After an amazing journey with Brandwatch, Kenneth Bracho, BIC ’16 joined Qubit as a Customer Success Manager. Qubit technology works with e-commerce algorithms to create personalized experiences on different verticals. Kenneth is really excited for Qubit's portfolio of partners and also for the tech implications of working with companies such as Google. 

Megan Fullagar BIC ’16 is putting her entrepreneurial chops to work as Marketing Director at StitcherAds,  a tech start-up focused on enhancing social ads (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok) through personalization and optimization. In her role, Megan will help consumers recognize if they're close to a store and then determine whether to serve them ads to visit in person or other platforms. StitcherAds also offers creative services and an analytics platform. Stitcher has never had a marketing department before, so Megan will be in charge of building it from the ground up.

Bravo to our BICsters who make us proud every day! Keep on rising!