On Friday, Feb. 16, students from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences left the University in pursuit of Turner Broadcasting in New York City. 

Turner Broadcasting is an American media business and  part of the TimeWarner group. Turner Broadcasting owns and operates different cable networks such as CNN, Cartoon Network, TNT, Adult Swim, TruTV, Hulu and others. 

Friday’s trip was the fifth annual trip in a partnership with the Villanova Office of Undergraduate Students and the Villanova Department of Communication. 

As her first year as chairperson of the Communication Department, Dr. Heidi Rose went on the trip for the first time. “I can’t think of a better way to foster relationships between academic and professional life than the ‘immersion day’ at Turner.,” Rose remarked. “Seeing Villanova alumni in action is incredibly inspiring to current undergrads!” 

Twenty-seven students were invited to attend the trip— which is sponsored by Villanova Alum and Senior Vice President of Sales & Client Partnerships at Turner, Joe Dugan— where they spent the day networking with professionals, touring the state-of-the-art facilities and learning all about internships and careers at Turner. 

“In sponsoring this experience for our students, [Dugan] is nurturing their professional development by making a huge corporation like Turner less intimidating and showing them how their studies are preparing them as well as the many ways they might be able to contribute in the future,” Rose said.

The trip began with two hours of lectures where ten professionals and University alums talk about Turner and the current media market. After that, students got an exclusive, hands-on behind the scenes tour of CNN on one of the busiest news cycle days this year. 

The students were able to watch a live broadcast happen in front of their eyes and news break from inside the newsroom.

After the studio tour, students enjoyed lunch, as well as more speakers who spoke about internships and entry-level job opportunities at Turner. “The most gratifying part of this year’s trip was to see former students who came on this trip with me in the past now working for Turner in leadership roles,” said Director for Experiential Education at Villanova Michael Pennington.