Congratulations to the latest FSU young alumni recognized for their outstanding accomplishments by the Alumni Association’s Thirty Under 30 Award.  Winners have demonstrated exceptional achievement and significant contributions to his or her profession, community/society or university.  From that 30, up to six honorees may be chosen to also receive the Reubin O’D. Askew Young Alumni Award by members of the Alumni Association National Board of Directors Awards Committee. The Askew Award, presented for the first time in the spring of 2012, is the highest honor bestowed upon young alumni by the Alumni Association.   The two College of Communication & Information students recognized were:

• Amanda Spann (B.S. ’09),  Black Girls Hack, Washington, District of Columbia  [BS & BA, Merchandising, Communication Studies]
• Natalie Binder (B.A. ’06, M.L.I.S. ’11), Librarian, Jefferson County R.J. Bailar Public Library, Monticello, Fla.  [MLIS, Library and Information Science]

Nominations for the Thirty Under 30 Award are typically accepted in the fall. For information about the application process, please check back closer to that time or contact Dawn Randle at drandle@fsu.edu.

For the complete list, see: one.fsu.edu/community/thirtyunder30

Mark Rodin

Sports Video Group (SVG) selects Mark Rodin, executive director of Seminole Productions and professor at the Florida State University (FSU) School of Communication, for the 2013 SVG College Sports Summit Pioneer Award.  Since SVG started offering this prestigious acknowledgment in 2012, Rodin is only the second recipient chosen for his significant industry and academic media production contributions.   He will be recognized and presented with the award at this year’s SVG summit in Atlanta on May 29.

According to an SVG article about the selection, “In his 20+ years at FSU, Rodin has developed a reputation throughout the industry for being a forward thinking, risk-taker that is always on the cutting edge of broadcast technology and video production. […] Demonstrating his talent at a young age, Rodin, a 1987 graduate of FSU, earned a bachelor’s degree in media production and was named “Most Outstanding Media Production” student in both 1986 and 1987.”

CCI congratulates Rodin on this excellent accomplishment, appreciates his contributions at FSU, and feels proud he is a Seminole alumnus of the School of Communication!

Read SVG’s full story about how “Florida State’s Mark Rodin Named 2013 Recipient of the SVG College Sports Summit Pioneer Award” published on April 18, 2013 at:
sportsvideo.org/main/blog/2013/04/18/florida-states-mark-rodin-named-2013-recipient-of-the-svg-college-sports-summit-pioneer-award/

Find another SVG’s article mentioning how Rodin and ‘Florida State continues to see 3D differently’ from October 23, 2012:
sportsvideo.org/main/blog/2012/10/23/florida-state-continues-to-see-3d-differently

A story published on January 27, 2013 also commends how Rodin’s Seminole Productions provides CCI students with real-work media production experience:
news.cci.fsu.edu/comm-dis-faculty/seminole-productions-offers-real-work-experience

Mark Rodin 3D Filming at FSU Football Game. Photo credit to Sports Video Group.

SLIS alumna Ginger Williams (MSLIS, ‘09), a reference librarian at Valdosta State University, received a promotion to assistant professor. In recognition of her accomplishments as an instructor during the past three years, she was also awarded credit toward tenure.

Williams’ specialization at the university’s Odum Library is also changing—from coordinating the embedded librarian program to assessing library systems and services.

In April, Williams will be presenting at the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACLR) 2013 conference with fellow SLIS alumni Michelle Demeter and Karen Doster. Williams has published articles in Georgia Library Quarterly (2011) and Palmetto Practitioner (2013).

While at FSU in 2009, Williams won a full scholarship to attend the ACLR’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Preconference in Virginia. She was president of the ALA Student Chapter that year and received a graduate research assistantship in Special Collections at Strozier Library. Williams spent her final six months of MLIS study as an intern at the FSU London Study Centre library.

The FSU Alpha Sigma chapter of Delta Zeta sorority has pledged $10,000 per year for the next five years toward the School of Communication Science & Disorder’s planned Integrated Pre-School Program. The news comes following the chapter’s early completion of a five-year, $25,000 endowment for the L.L. Schendel Clinic through their Hamburgers for Hearing program.

“When we reached our funding goal by earning almost $10,000 during 2012, Phyllis asked us if we thought we could challenge ourselves to raise $50,000 in five years,” said Haylie Collins, Alpha Sigma president and former philanthropy chairman for Hamburgers for Hearing.

“Each year we got better and better at fundraising,” Delta Zeta faculty advisor Phyllis Underwood said. “We learned to network, to reach out to the community and to use creative ways of marketing to get more people to attend.”

Collins and Underwood also credited the assistance of more than 20 highly engaged local Delta Zeta alumnae who worked helping in the kitchen and who donated bottled water and baked cookies that generated funds for the endowment.

Delta Zeta’s national philanthropic partnerships focus on speech- and hearing-related causes. The school’s Integrated Pre-School program will bring together typically developing children and those with communication impairments. In addition to building out space on the first floor of the Warren Building, it will require increased security equipment, a playground and handicap accessibility.

Neifeld Mark

School of Communication alumnus Mark E. Neifeld is the senior event coordinator of The Georgia Dome, home stadium of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and the Georgia State Panthers. The venue hosts annual events like the Southeastern Conference Football Championship, Chick-fil-A Bowl and Monster Energy Supercross.

Neifeld is serving as event manager for the 2013 75th Anniversary of the NCAA Final Four, a top U.S. sporting event to determine the winner of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, known informally as March Madness. He is also serving as chair of operations for the Atlanta local organizing committee. Previously, he served on the facility coordination committee for the 2012 NCAA Final Four in New Orleans and will continue on the committee at the 2014 Final Four in North Texas.

In 2011, while serving on the Georgia World Congress Center Authority’s Technology Committee, Neifeld created and launched the Georgia Dome’s “Mobile Concierge,” the industry’s first stadium-based smartphone web application designed for event attendees. The application was featured in numerous publications and Neifeld earned the authority’s “Bright Idea of The Year” award.

Neifeld was previously the event operations coordinator for the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Times Forum (“Top Ten Venue in the United States,” Pollstar and Billboard Magazine). While working for the Lightning, he was credited with launching industry-recognized new media campaigns. The team received publicity for the first trade in professional sports announced via Twitter and, through his creative leadership, their campaigns were featured in countless media outlets.

Neifeld earned a dual bachelor’s degree from Florida State University with majors in public relations and sociology. He resides in Atlanta with his wife, and fellow Seminole, Danielle.