SNHU Communication Studio & GCC: A Mutually Beneficial Collaboration

By David Hudson

As an educator we’re not supposed to have favorites, but one of the courses I enjoying teaching the most at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is our Communication Studio class. It’s a hands-on class designed to give our communication majors real-world experience. It pairs students with local businesses and nonprofits. The clients share a project they’re working on or a communication challenge they’re facing and work with the students to find and implement a solution.

Last spring, my students partnered with a Global Citizens Circle (GCC) team to bring some previously recorded videos to a wider audience. They were able to help GCC and learned a great deal in return.

In many ways, it was a typical project. Our clients often have some content—audio clips, photos, video, or written material—that they’d like to share. Unfortunately, they often lack the resources to repurpose the material or the skills to tailor the material for a different audience. In this case, it was simply a matter of time. GCC knew what they wanted to accomplish, but just didn’t have enough hands. Indeed, GCC had already generated written summaries of some video recordings, but it all still needed to be packaged for the web.

My students loved working with GCC, President and Executive Director Theo Dunfey and Assistant Director Phoebe de Larrabeiti in this case, and really appreciated the feedback they received as they worked on summarizing and adapting the content for the GCC website. Theory is all well and good, but nothing quite replaces a real-world project.

In addition, my students had the opportunity to learn about GCC and its mission. They also took a great deal of pride in knowing they helped GCC bring their story to a wider audience.
​
You can see the fruits of this collaboration on GCC’s Dialogue2Action page. I hope you will check out the videos and discussion guides and consider using these powerful tools within your own organizations and networks. 

---

---

David Hudson joined the communication program at SNHU in 2021, bringing vast experience in the IT, consulting, and entrepreneurship realm to public speaking and other courses. After years of pitching to investors, partners, and consumers, he’s honed his ability to explain just about anything to anyone.
 Hudson earned his BA in Computer Science at Dartmouth College, a Master of Public Administration from the University of New Hampshire, and has been active in the nonprofit sector throughout his career. He’s been a TEDx organizer since 2013, event host, and speaker team co-lead as well as a longtime speaker coach.

---

Please note: Each week, we invite members of the greater Global Citizens Circle community to contribute to GCC Voices. The views and opinions expressed in each blog post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Global Citizens Circle.

My students loved working with GCC...theory is all well and good, but nothing quite replaces a real-world project.
                                                                                                                                            - David Hudson