Digital Media, Cinema and Journalism students across levels took notes and revised resumes on the third floor of Halle Library Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, for "Navigating a Career in Media," a new event led by Professor You Li.
The DMCJ career day kicked off with a hands-on resume and cover letter workshop and a faculty-led finding jobs and internships panel. The event concluded with a panel discussion from eight media professionals who got their start at Eastern Michigan University.
While the event was tailored to students in the DMCJ program, the knowledge shared by the panelists remains applicable to anyone looking to pursue a media career.
Sports Illustrated Reporter Dominic Minchella (middle) speaks to the audience during DMCJ career day. Michigan Public Producer Ronia Cabansag (left) and Sports Broadcaster Ryan Wooley listen to what he has to say. The remaining five alumni panelists participated virtually during the hybrid event.
The importance of networking
Ronia Cabansag, a producer at Michigan Public, emphasized the importance of networking in landing her first job.
"I got my foot in the door by networking my brains out," Cabansag said. “If there was any room that I could be in, I would do my best to be there.”
Alicia Lewis, a lifestyle anchor for WALB-TV in Albany, Georgia, shared her relentless pursuit to find work after graduating from EMU. After moving to Atlanta, Georgia, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Lewis picked up a virtual side job to support herself while pursuing her career in media.
After Lewis discovered a job opening at WALB-TV, a news station she had been unaware of until then, she did her best to make her interest in the position known.
“I reached out to literally every person at the station," Lewis said. "Everybody at that station knew who Alicia Lewis was. I was consistent.”
Now, after starting as a reporter and working for WALB-TV for five years, Lewis hosts her own lifestyle show at the station.
Navigating rejection
Michael "Ned" Nedwick, radio DJ for KMFW-FM’s Rock 108, emphasized how persistent one must be when navigating a career in media.
“For every 90 no's, you're going to get one yes,” Nedwick said. “Just keep going, keep going.”
Dominic Minchella, a Sports Illustrated reporter, shared his personal experience with rejection in the job market after experiencing it firsthand.
“Every no that I got told, I started to care less about being told no,” Minchella said.
Lewis joined the conversation and said, “Rejection is redirection. Your no's are a part of the journey.”
Final takeaways
Benni Klenczar, a senior at EMU majoring in English with a creative writing concentration, felt encouraged by the alumni panel to persevere through the career search, especially in response to missed opportunities.
“The one thing that I took away was chase your dreams,” Klenczar said. “I think that’s a big through line for writing or for creative careers in general when there’s no set path — it’s just like a winding road, it’s like an adventure.”
April Calkovsky, a career coach at EMU and speaker on the jobs and internships panel, gasped in excitement when asked about the event in a later interview. Calkovsky said that, in addition to the career day hosted by the EMU Chemistry Department earlier this week, the DMCJ career day was the best career-related event she had seen an academic department host in quite a while.
“I really hope that more departments will do career days like this and bring alumni back to share their experiences because the alumni perspective is so important for current students to have,” Calkovsky said, emphasizing its importance repeatedly.
You Li, EMU journalism professor and lead coordinator of DMCJ career day, plans for it to become an annual event. Li said she feels that the first iteration only scratched the surface of the information that DMCJ faculty could provide to students.
Though the workshops may take a different form in the future depending on student needs, Li hopes that the alumni panel will be a recurring highlight of the event.
Editor’s note: Ronia Cabansag worked for The Eastern Echo as a reporter and podcast editor from 2018-21.
