Students Selected to Present at National Communication Convention

The National Communication Association [NCA] invited 11 Biola University students to present at its 104th Annual Convention: "Communication at Play." NCA is the largest professional organization for scholars in communication. Students from Biola in addition to several faculty members had work accepted into the convention, which was held in Salt Lake City, Utah in early November.

"Often graduate students as well as doctoral and post-doc students are selected for the conference as a way to build their curriculum vitaes, but to have undergraduate students chosen is quite rare," said Joy Qualls, chair of the communication studies department. "To have 11 students chosen (8 individual papers and a 3 person paper panel) is nearly record breaking. Certainly this is the largest group from Biola to present and we could not be more proud."

To be selected, students need to apply and submit work. Submissions are evaluated by pre-selected evaluators. Having work accepted means that at least 2 of 3 reviewers gave high points.

"The rate of acceptance for undergraduate papers into the convention is particularly low, and the acceptance of eleven students from a single school is virtually unheard of," said student Hannah Williamson, a communications major and one of the students selected to present.

Biola's Department of Communication Studies aims to produce committed Christian graduates who are trained in the theory and practice of communicative arts and are masters at constructing and delivering ethically written and globally relevant oral messages, using all forms of popular and religious media.