Recent Graduates Share Success Stories at Communications Colloquium

At the debut Communications Colloquium on April 15, three recent college graduates, each working in broadcasting, encouraged students to focus on what they really want to do in their careers, then pursue those goals with vigor.


Starting this semester S.C. State's growing Communications Program is housed in new digs in Crawford Hall, formerly the longtime home to the university's engineering school. Communications faculty decided the large auditorium in room 209 was ideal to hold a colloquium (or academic forum).

Two of the panelists came from the ranks of recent S.C. State graduates. Yazmine Marshall, a 2013 communications graduate, is a development executive with WSSB radio, located on the S.C. State campus. She previously worked as the program director at Orangeburg's WOCS radio.

Bowman, S.C. native Albert Shuler is the production manager at WOCS radio. In December 2014 he earned a degree from S.C. State in music education. Still very involved in music composition, Shuler is music director at two area churches and assists high school marching bands. 

Also on the panel was 2014 University of South Carolina broadcasting graduate Destiny Chance. After  a six month job search, she landed a news reporter position at Columbia's Fox affiliate, WACH-TV.

The three broadcasting professionals told of their respective career paths and offered advice and encouragement to their audience of nearly 50 S.C. State students, mostly communications majors.

"If your work speaks for itself, you should be good," said Shuler, whose internship at WOCS while still in college lead to him being offered a full-time job.

Marshall urged the students to "learn everything, learn how to do everything, don't pigeonhole yourself. Always carry yourself with a professional demeanor  and strive to make a good first impression."

Destiny Chance is a reporter at Columbia's WACH-TV

Chance (right), who hails from Greenville, S.C., used initiative and natural curiosity to get her foot in the door of the competitive television news business.

While at USC she interned at a Greenville TV station and went off campus to cover hard news stories around Columbia, building on her experience and the needed resume "reel" of reports and on-camera parts to showcase her abilities to station news directors.

"I was a one-woman-band," Chance said, "I wanted to learn to do everything myself." So she covered her stories by herself, not asking classmates to come along with her.

She said knowing how to do it all herself, and do it well- the shooting, editing, writing, and reporter stand ups- made her more marketable and enabled her to get that breakthrough on-air job at WACH.
Chance's work can be seen on the station's website and some of her early USC reporting can be found on her YouTube channel.

Despite being a Gamecock, Chance has strong Bulldog ties. She was born in Orangeburg, and both her parents, April Henderson (Chance) and Anthony Chance, are South Carolina State graduates.

Guest speakers and Communications faculty

"It was awesome!" said student Raven Barker about the Communication Program's first-ever colloquium. Faculty are talking about making it a once or twice a year event in the future.

Pictured, from left to right, are panelists Albert Shuler, Yazmine Marshall and Destiny Chance, moderator and communications instructor Gil Harris, and Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, a panelist and director of S.C. State's Communications Program.

For more on S.C. State's Communications Program, please visit the Department of English and Modern Languages website.