Students and faculty travel to communication convention

Two days before the start of fall break, Union College students and faculty boarded a Boeing aircraft to travel to the East Coast. They would attend the annual convention for the Society of Adventist Communicators, which was hosted at the North American Division (NAD) headquarters in Columbia, MD.

Thankfully, the flight was safe and uneventful, with the travelers binging downloaded media while others dealt with unpleasantly intermittent and costly Wifi. They landed that evening at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (also known as DCA or National). After spending some time in Georgetown, a downtown area of Washington, DC with several restaurants and shops, they headed north to Columbia.

Fortunately, the convention did not kick off till 1 p.m. the next day, giving the people a chance to relax. The convention opened with a preliminary discussion on social networking and reputation management with several media executives from AdventHealth, a prominent Adventist healthcare provider.

Next, the general session continued with inspiring lectures on Adventist history and how the church was founded by revolutionary communicators. It was also revealed that social justice, an issue that has become more prominent in the last few years, was an integral part in the founding of Adventism. This brought tears to the eyes of many advocates for diversity and equity. The session concluded with calls to action; inspiring people with a passion for communication to use their gifts to spread the gospel.

The next day, attendees had the opportunity to attend several breakout sessions, ranging from podcasting to crisis communication. Union College’s own Dr. Tanya Cochran presented on compassion during one of the lectures.

A lecture that was especially enjoyed by Union students was the presentation on Christian influencing by Kevin Wilson, an Adventist pastor with over 350,000 followers on TikTok. He is primarily known for using his love of chai tea to draw truths from the Bible. He spoke about the need to develop relationships and connections before conversion to the gospel can happen.

Union students enjoyed the convention and made many potential internship and job contacts while attending. For some, it felt like they had finally found people of similar values and interests; for others, they found a new direction to take their education. After a fun afternoon exploring DC, they flew back to Nebraska and prepared to get caught up on their assignments – the unfortunate consequence of a long trip.


By: Charles Metz