On the south end of Howard University’s campus, you’re greeted by voice recorders, video cameras, and AP stylebooks. While on the north end, you’re entering little Wall Street with corporate suits, brief cases, and calculators.
The on-going battle of who’s better between the School of Business and the School of Communications is one that comes with the legacy of Howard University. But, in all actuality, there is no real answer as to which school is better.
The School of Communications requires that their students have a supervised internship in order to graduate. This allows students to gain hands-on experience from their perspective fields. However, when asked about plans post-college, many students give a common shoulder shrug.
George Chapman, senior, Broadcast Journalism major has had seven internships, including HBO and BET, but has no job offers. Although optimistic about his future, he does not know what he is doing after graduation on May 12.
“They’re coming!” said Chapman referring to his future job opportunities. “God told me to be patient.”
Chapman, who developed a recent love for photography aspires to be a news reporter. And although he has taken the necessary steps of preparation to be a thorough candidate in his career of choice, his extreme optimism is unconventional.
“It’s unfortunate that we’re [School of Communications students] often the ones scouring the earth for jobs after graduation,” said Chapman.
“But when you have as much fun as we do at work in our various fields it turns out to be worth it.”
The School of Business, on the other hand, recommends, but does not require their students to have internships prior to graduation.
“I’ve interned every summer since my junior year in high school,” said Aric Adams, senior, Finance major.
“All of my internships since I’ve been at Howard University have been through the school of business,” he said. “They’ve landed me three job offers – Deloitte, Connoco Phillips and Union Bank of Switzerland.”
Many School of Communications students who have friends in the School of Business are discouraged and dissatisfied with the short-term results of their Howard career.
“It’s unfair that if you want to do something that you genuinely enjoy and are passionate about, you have to deal with the difficulties of breaking into the field with little help from your school,” said Fredricka Ransome, senior, TV Production major. “It’s almost as if you have to suck it up be apart of the School of B to get a job and be unhappy if you want to live without economic hardships.”
While passion and enjoyment for a field may be important to some, others deem positions in the business field to be more promising.
Chris Sledge, a senior, Marketing major received a job offer from L’Oreal through a case competition through the School of Business.
“I think it’s great that the School of Business provides so many job opportunities for their students, however, I don’t think other schools provide as much support as far as job placement,” he said.
In December, Sledge will be relocating to New York City to work as a photographer for L’Oreal.
“All internships provided through the school of business lead to jobs,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t work out, but that’s usually because of personal performance or you weren’t a good fit for the company.”
Ransome has applied to numerous companies, and has received no responses. “I think because of pride, we try to keep our job-search struggles to our self,” said Ransome. “But we cannot choose to ignore the fact that when we’re asked what we are doing post graduation, no one really has a plan.”
“I really did not know that School of C students didn’t end up with jobs post-graduation because I feel like they always have a million and one internships,” said Sledge. “But then again, I have never heard about any of them working for the companies they have interned for.”
It’s clear that following your passion does not necessarily yield the best results.
