The annual #COMMChella Music Festival, a highlight of the SC&I Communication Department’s annual #BECOMM campaign, was held at the Yard on College Avenue on April 2, 2025 under a fair sky. This year nearly 3,000 undeclared majors, transfer students, and prospective Rutgers students attended the music festival to learn about majoring in Communication while enjoying live music, networking, interactive career conversations with alumni, and other fun and informative activities.

Organized by Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, Communication, Mark Beal and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Communication and Associate Teaching Professor of Communication Brian Householder, COMMchella was planned, promoted, and hosted by SC&I students enrolled in the Strategic Public Relations Event Planning course taught by Beal.

“It was inspiring to witness the community of Rutgers communication majors - past, present and future - and communication department faculty come together to connect and collaborate in unprecedented numbers to celebrate the communication major at Rutgers University,” Beal said. “The students who comprise the 400-level course that planned and executed the campaign and the music festival took #BeCOMM and COMMchella to a new level this semester.”

Householder said, “It was a wonderful day. The continued growth of the event is outrageous. From the student turnout, to sponsors engagement, to our alumni attendance . . . we are trending the right way. The goal is to continue this event trajectory.”

The exciting day-long event was kicked off by members the Rutgers University Marching Band, followed by the music lineup which included performances by SNACKTIME, the house band for “They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce” on ESPN; Deep Treble, Rutgers University’s premier co-ed a cappella group that finished second place in the 2024 ICCA Mid-Atlantic quarterfinals and is comprised exclusively of Rutgers University students including Hannah Mathew COM’26; Jake Thistle COM’26, who was recently recognized by the Boston Herald as one of the “Rising Music Stars of 2025”; and Blush Boy, a music act that includes Rutgers graduates as bandmates.

In addition to the musical performances, COMMchella offered many free activities to support the academic and professional growth of Rutgers Communication majors.

The SC&I Office of Career Services hosted the student-alumni career networking event “Career Conversations.” Attended by 40 alumni, the grads spoke with current students about the exciting and rewarding professional opportunities that will be open to them as Communication majors. #COMMChella also offered resume writing clinics, and a LinkedIn photographer who offered students free professional headshots to help students enhance their online presence.

Commenting on the success of “Career Conversations,” Brittany Castellanos MCM’21, COM’19 senior account executive at FINN Partners, said, “Had the BEST time at the hashtag#COMMchella Festival at Rutgers University yesterday! This amazing event celebrates the Communication major and all that it has to offer at RU. I had the pleasure of joining fellow alumni on a Career Conversations panel to speak with current students - sharing my Rutgers experiences while also shedding light on what it’s like to work in Consumer PR . . . I’m so happy to have been a part of this festival, especially knowing how much of a positive impact the Comm major can have on students’ journeys!”

Alumna Katelyn Reardon MCM’23, COM’22 assistant account executive at Nonni Strategic Marketing, said, “Thrilled to have been a part of the Career Conversations portion of #COMMchella for the second time, representing Nonni Strategic Marketing! Watching this event evolve from its inaugural year, when I was a senior at Rutgers, into a spring semester staple has been nothing short of inspiring. It’s an event I look forward to each year, and seeing its continued growth has been an absolute joy.”

For the first time, in partnership with The Career Closet of Rutgers-New Brunswick (managed by the Rutgers Office of Career Exploration and Success) and the Rutgers F.A.C.E. Modeling Team, students modeled career-ready outfits sourced from the Rutgers Career Closet.

“Putting together the first-ever student fashion show featuring the CES Career Closet was also a highlight of this year’s COMMchella!,” said MaryKate McCunney COM’25, who is minoring in Digital Communication, Media, and Information (DCIM) at SC&I and Sport Management. “It was an amazing experience to work on planning the logistics of the show, as well as participate in it! A huge thank you to all of our models who participated! It was wonderful to work with Aaron Ratzan, MSEd and the CES office on this wonderful student initiative.”

SC&I student organizations RU Sure, Scarlet PR, PRSSA, Rutgers Public Speaking Organization, Rutgers Riot Squad, and the SC&I Master of Communication and Media (MCM) Graduate Student Association were there to promote the communication major to freshmen, transfer students, and undecided majors, and the graduate MCM degree to current majors.

Many SC&I Communication faculty members also attended #COMMChella, to discuss the major broadly and to explain the five academic specializations offered through the major, which include Health and Wellness Communication; Leadership in Organizations and Community; Relationships and Family Communication; Strategic Public Communication; Communication and Technology; and Public Relations.

Noting that this year the students in his class employed a variety of new public relations and marketing strategies and tactics to promote #COMMchella, Beal said these “firsts” included:

• COMMchella Digital Billboards were displayed in all Rutgers student centers. The students converted the COMMchella poster into a digital billboard and collaborated with the leaders of the Rutgers student centers to have COMMchella featured on all the digital billboards in all the student centers across College Avenue, Livingston, Busch, Cook and Douglass for two weeks.
• COMMchella Digital Billboards were displayed in all Rutgers Recreation Centers: Two of the students who work for Rutgers Recreation received approval from the leaders of Rutgers Recreation to feature COMMchella for 2 weeks on all the digital billboards across all campuses.
• Two weeks of COMMchella promotional videos, created by a student in Beal’s class, were aired on the Jumbotron at the Yard on College Ave.
• #BeCOMM/COMMchella was featured in the national media: Her Campus Media, a national media outlet focused on college women, published the article "Attend The Must Go To Rutgers Event Of The Spring: COMMchella 2025.”
• Beal’s class ran an email marketing campaign to 4,000+ Rutgers Communication graduates.
• The highest number corporate partners supported the event either with donations or products. They included: Warner Bros. Discovery/Max Streaming, Con Agra Food Brands, Mars Wrigley/Starburst, BMW, LG Electronics, Starbucks, RWJBarnabas Health, Manasquan Bank, Terebey Relocation, and New York/New Jersey Red Bulls.
• More than 40 Rutgers communication major graduates at the senior or CEO level returned to participate in “Career Conversations,” where they engaged with current students. The alums represented a wide variety of industries - healthcare, sports, entertainment, media, tech, telecommunications, music, beauty, education and much more. They work across advertising, public relations, corporate communications, social media, event marketing, market research, social media influencer marketing and beyond.
• COMMchella Burgers were added to The Menu At 30 Burgers & Brew on Easton Avenue from March 24-April 2.
• A #BeCOMM/COMMchella Mobile Billboard drove across campus promoting #BeCOMM and COMMchella.

Chair of the Communication Department and Professor of Communication Marya Doerfel, who attended the event, said, “Congratulations to Mark Beal and students for a fourth year of the now biannual event that is the place to be seen in spring. The Yard was full, the Career Conversation room filled with some 40 alumni sharing their stories with our students, and the music boomed while dozens of booths representing programs and clubs giving out information and swag aplenty engaged students in ways to enrich their lives.  Once again, big thanks to Mark Beal and Brian Householder for continuing to innovate about ways to #becomm.”

Learn more about the SC&I Communication Department on the Rutgers School of Communication and Information website.