{"id":211907,"date":"2020-05-22T09:48:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T13:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/?p=211907"},"modified":"2020-06-10T09:10:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T13:10:26","slug":"celebrity-speakers-surprise-communication-and-media-grads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/2020\/05\/22\/celebrity-speakers-surprise-communication-and-media-grads\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrity Speakers Surprise Communication and Media Grads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In surprise appearances at a virtual celebration for the School of Communication and Media on May 21, Rachel Maddow and Stephen Colbert offered words of encouragement to graduates in a time of uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>Maddow likened this COVID Class of 2020 to the last class to graduate in the middle of a global pandemic, reading from the yearbook of the Class of 1919, at a time when Montclair State was known as the New Jersey State Normal School at Montclair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike those guys 100 years ago, you really are graduating into a huge, weird historical moment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>As those graduates in 1919 also missed out on senior-year rituals, their \u201cenforced vacation\u201d due to the Spanish flu, Maddow shared how the earlier generation framed their college experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn many ways our career here has been an unusual one,\u201d Maddow read from the 1919 yearbook. \u201cProbably the work of no class has been so broken-in-upon by unusual happenings as has ours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Video: Stephen Colbert, Bret Michaels, Rachel Maddow Surprise Grads\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m66Wim2TWjc?feature=oembed\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen style=\"width: 500px; height: 281px; border: 0px solid #000;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Montclair State\u2019s connections within the media made for a memorable virtual celebration for the School of Communication and Media graduates at a time when mandatory separation has postponed in-person graduation ceremonies until it\u2019s safer to gather together. Broadcast live on YouTube, the star-studded event also included a guest appearance by Poison singer Bret Michaels, a friend and supporter of Montclair State radio station WMSC-FM.<\/p>\n<p>Colbert, a Montclair neighbor, recorded a message from his home. The world of communication and broadcasting \u201cstill goes on in its own strange way, as I can attest if you\u2019ve seen me doing my show (<em>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/em>) from the guest bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maddow, host of <em>The Rachel Maddow Show<\/em>, recorded the segment on her set, flashing graphics and pull quotes from the old yearbook. \u201cAt the very end of this similarly feeling history,\u201d Maddow said the Class of 1919 wrote a message \u201cI believe they intended for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we look back upon our whole career from our present position,\u201d students wrote in 1919, \u201cit comes to us that we have reason to doubt the soundness of that saying, \u2018happy are they whose annals are simple,\u2019 for our annals have not been thus, but we have indeed been happy here. We have but one wish \u2013 may those who come be as happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Using the opportunity to impart advice, Maddow said, \u201cHappiness obviously doesn\u2019t come from living a simple, perfect uninterrupted life. It comes from navigating the challenges and the joys of the complicated, weird life that you actually do get to live.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"prpl-row\"><div class=\"prpl-column two-fifths\">\n<figure class=\"responsive-image-holder wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"mlt-responsive-image\" data-original-image=\"\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/05\/maddow-and-henriquez.jpg\" src=\"\/responsive-media\/cache\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/05\/maddow-and-henriquez.jpg.0.1x.generic.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel Maddow posing for photo with Carly Henriquez\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carly D. Henriquez \u201920 meets Rachel Maddow at MSNBC during her internship.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><div class=\"prpl-column three-fifths\">\n<p>For Carly D. Henriquez, a Communication and Media Arts major from Orange, New Jersey, having Maddow as the surprise speaker was \u201ctruly a full-circle moment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Henriquez spent her senior year as an intern with the MSNBC weekend production team, AM Joy, and had an opportunity to meet the star host while on the job at 30 Rock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI loved the message she gave us because she showed us that we are not alone and we can make the most of our short time here,\u201d Henriquez said.<\/p>\n<p>The new Montclair State graduate has been hired by NBCUniversal to work with graphics and anchor producing.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>To graduates uncertain of the road ahead, Colbert offered encouragement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhatever is on the other side of all this strangeness right now, the show must and will go on. And the nice thing about show business or whatever form of communications you go into \u2013 since it takes everything human beings know how to do: writing, singing, dancing, directing, lighting, sound, music, art, painting, construction, driving, organizing, feeding people, doing the books \u2013 there is something for you, there is a place for you in this industry, whenever this industry becomes the industry again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>WMSC Radio shared messages earlier in the week from David Brancaccio, host of The Marketplace Morning Report, Tom Kaminski from WCBS\/PIX11 News, and Eddie Trunk from Trunk Nation on SiriusXM.<\/p>\n<p>The virtual celebration was hosted by Keith Strudler, director of the School of Communication and Media. It was typical of the top speakers and industry connections that are regularly part of the School\u2019s programming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe having a graduation celebration like this is a reminder of what a special place our School is, its high regard in the professional world, and the opportunities our students have in reaching their goals,\u201d Strudler said.<\/p>\n<p>Story by Staff Writer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/profilepages\/view_profile.php?username=lehrenma\">Marilyn Joyce Lehren<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You May Also Like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/2020\/05\/21\/congratulations-class-of-2020\/?utm_source=carousel&amp;utm_campaign=homepage_features&amp;utm_medium=montclair.edu&amp;utm_content=1\">Congratulations Class of 2020!\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/2020\/05\/21\/joy-in-the-moment\/\">Joy in the Moment<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/\/ Output tags as a list for Google Analytics custom dimension\nwindow.MSU_TagList = [];\n<\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rachel Maddow, Stephen Colbert offer advice to our 2020 SCM graduates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication-and-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211907"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211955,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211907\/revisions\/211955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}