SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. — On Friday, Sept. 27, and Saturday, Sept. 28, Penn State Schuylkill hosted the 84th annual Pennsylvania Communication Association (PCA) conference. This was the first time that Penn State Schuylkill hosted this event, which included over 80 participants from more than 40 different colleges and universities across Pennsylvania and beyond. Valerie Schrader, professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State Schuylkill and now the current president of PCA, planned the conference. Four faculty, nine students and one recent graduate from Penn State Schuylkill presented work at the conference.

The theme of the conference was “Pondering Our Past, Forging Our Future” and focused on academic mentorship. In addition to a number of panels featuring research in different areas of the communication discipline, the conference included a song circle, a business meeting and luncheon, an awards ceremony and banquet, a garden party, and a “ghost tour” of campus led by Harold Aurand, teaching professor of history; Nicole Andel, teaching professor of English; and Janelle Gruber, program coordinator and lecturer of corporate communication. Speakers included Darcy Medica, provost and vice president of academic affairs at the State University of New York, Cobleskill, who is the former director of academic affairs at Penn State Schuylkill; Robert Craig, professor emeritus of communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder; and Cory Scherer, interim chancellor and director of academic affairs at Penn State Schuylkill.

“We are thrilled to have been able to host the PCA conference this year,” Schrader said. “The Penn State Schuylkill campus community really came together to put on a great event, and I can’t thank our staff and faculty enough for all of their help. We are especially grateful to the Chancellor’s Office for sponsoring the garden party event Friday night, which was a big hit.”

In addition to Schrader, Gruber, Aurand and Andel, all of whom presented their own research at the conference, nine Penn State Schuylkill students and one Penn State Schuylkill graduate presented a total of 17 projects at the conference. All work submitted was blind reviewed by scholars in the discipline and selected for presentation based on merit.

The students and their projects:

Tiffany Bohner is a senior majoring in psychology with two minors in communication arts and sciences, and communication and mass media. She presented three projects: her paper, “‘See Me’ Through Autoethnography: Invitational Rhetoric and the Importance of Reading Books Together,” was presented on the Top Student Paper Panel; her poster, “Climate Change, Greta Thunberg, and Simons’ Social Movement Leadership and Strategies Theory” was presented at the poster session; and she served as a panelist on a panel about public memory in Schuylkill County, where she presented on the Schuylkill County Almshouse. She completed her paper and poster project as honors options in Schrader’s "CAS 210: Landmark speeches on democracy and dissent" and "CAS 455: Gender communication" class, respectively. Bohner's paper was selected by blind review as the Top Undergraduate Student Paper at PCA this year. This was Bohner's second communication conference; she presented work at PCA last year in Slippery Rock.

Erik Dubbs is a senior majoring in corporate communication with a minor in psychology. He presented three projects: his paper, “Hegemony in the Musical Allegiance,” was presented on a panel; his poster, “El Laberinto Del Fauno: Exploring the Horrifically Beautiful Maze of Pan's Labyrinth through Bruner's Narrative Theory” was presented at the poster session; and he served as a panelist on a panel about public memory in Schuylkill County, where he presented on the Kelsey Theatre. He completed his paper in Schrader’s "CAS 100" honors class and his poster project as his honors option in her "CAS 303: Communication theory" class. This was Dubbs' first communication conference.

Christopher Duffy is a senior majoring in corporate communication with two minors in communication arts and sciences, and business. He presented two projects: his paper, “Burkean Identification in Jimmy Rollins’ ‘Team to Beat’ Statement,” was presented on a panel and his poster, “Bitzer’s Rhetorical Situation and the MLB’s Crackdown on Foreign Substances” was presented at the poster session. He completed both of these projects as honors options in Schrader’s communication arts and sciences classes. This was Duffy's first communication conference.

Karandhir Singh Flora is a senior majoring in nursing with a minor in communication arts and mass media. He presented two projects: his paper, “Navigating the Labyrinth of Privacy: An Analysis of Communication Privacy Management in March Comes in Like a Lion,” was presented on the Top Student Paper Panel, and his poster, “Understanding Persuasive Tactics Used By Tobacco Companies: A Rhetorical Analysis Using Aristotle’s Artistic Proofs” was presented at the poster session. He completed the projects as honors work in an independent study with Schrader and in her "CAS 101N: Introduction to human communication" class. His paper was selected by blind review as the second runner-up in the Undergraduate Writing Competition. This was Singh Flora's fifth communication conference; he presented work at the 2022, 2023 and 2024 Eastern Communication Association conferences and the 2023 PCA conference.

Kyla Valerie Guillermo is a 2024 Penn State Schuylkill graduate with a bachelor of science in nursing and a minor in communication arts and mass media. She presented her paper, “Balancing Fire and Water: An Exploration of Relational Dialectics in Elemental,” which she completed in the spring in an independent study with Schrader, on the Top Student Paper Panel. Her paper was selected by blind review as the Top Graduate Student Paper at PCA this year. This was Kyla’s fourth communication conference; she previously presented work at the 2022, 2023 and 2024 Eastern Communication Association conferences in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cambridge. She is currently a nurse at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Kacey Harper is a junior majoring in corporate communication. She served as a panelist on a panel about public memory in Schuylkill County, where she focused her presentation on the Pioneer Coal Tunnel. Harper was also selected as the PCA Voices of Tomorrow College Communicator Award recipient this year. This was Harper's first communication conference.

Lily Kreiser is a sophomore majoring in nursing with a minor in communication arts and mass media. She presented two projects at the conference: her paper, “The Role of Hegemony in 9 to 5: The Musical,” was presented on a panel, and she served as a panelist on a panel about public memory in Schuylkill County, where she focused her presentation on the Yuengling Mansion. She completed her paper in Schrader’s "CAS 100" honors class in the spring. This was Kreiser's first communication conference.

Jenalise Muir is a sophomore majoring in nursing with a minor in communication arts and mass media. She presented a poster, “Burkean Identification and Hadestown,” which she completed outside of class, at the poster session. This was Muir's first communication conference.

Anastasia Rakowsky is a sophomore majoring in corporate communication with a minor in communication artsand sciences. She served as a panelist on a panel about public memory in Schuylkill County, where she focused her presentation on the Yuengling Brewery. This was Rakowsky's first communication conference.

Carter Strouse is a sophomore majoring in corporate communication. He served as a panelist on a panel about public memory in Schuylkill County, where he focused his presentation on Sweet Arrow Lake. This was Strouse's first communication conference.

“I am so incredibly proud of our students,” Schrader said. “They all did an amazing job with their presentations and were excellent representatives of the campus and university. And I love that our corporate communication program and three communication minors enable our students to conduct their own original research and present at conferences like PCA. Undergraduate research is such a highlight of the Penn State experience, and I’m proud to be able to offer these opportunities to our students.”

The students said they also found PCA to be a meaningful learning experience.

“PCA was first research conference,” Muir said. “It gave me the opportunity to get to know other students doing communication research on campus and connect with people from other schools and other majors. We even started planning a collaborative research panel for the Eastern Communication Conference coming up in spring 2025!”

Kreiser pointed out that communication is connected to many other disciplines.

“I am doing a communication minor, but I am a nursing student,” Kreiser said. “Though they may not seem to have that much in common, the things I am learning in my communication classes and research will help me to be a better nurse.”

Penn State Schuylkill also took home a number of awards this year:

• Tiffany Bohner - Top Undergraduate Paper Award, Undergraduate Writing Competition
• Kyla Guillermo - Top Graduate Paper Award, Graduate Writing Competition,
• Karandhir Singh Flora - Second Runner-Up, Undergraduate Writing Competition
• Kacey Harper - Voices of Tomorrow College Communicator Award
• Valerie Schrader - Harvey Kelly Excellence in Teaching Award
• Nicole Andel and Harold Aurand - People’s Choice Award for a Faculty Poster at the Poster Session

The Penn State Schuylkill campus has been very successful in undergraduate research in communication studies. Since 2013, Schrader has taken 47 students to state, regional and national communication conferences, where they have presented more than 115 individual research projects and won 21 top paper and top poster awards. Schrader and Gruber’s own work has received a number of award recognitions as well: Gruber has had two top papers at the Eastern Communication Association and Schrader has had 15 top papers at national, regional and state conferences. Currently, they are working with a team of undergraduate researchers who are looking to submit work to the Eastern Communication Association conference in Buffalo, New York, this March.

To learn more about PCA, please visit pcasite.org. To learn more about undergraduate research at Penn State Schuylkill, visit schuylkill.psu.edu/research/undergraduate-research. To learn more about the corporate communication major, corporate communication minor, communication arts and sciences minor, or the communication arts and mass media minor at Penn State Schuylkill, please visit schuylkill.psu.edu/academics.