Travis Cornwell talks communication degree, radio internship and study abroad

January 19, 2018

This week Finlandia Fridays was visited be senior communication major Travis Cornwell. Originally from Minnesota, Cornwell stated “Finlandia kind of found me. I was in Vegas at a showcase for hockey, and they were one of the last schools to look at me, so I decided to give them a chance. I came up here and just absolutely liked it.” Outside of hockey, Cornwell mentioned that he enjoys studying communication, and his advisor Dr. Monique Bourdage has been critical to his success this past year, especially helping him with his internship.

This past summer, FinnU partnered with Houghton Community Broadcasting to make 99.3 The Lift is the official voice of Finlandia University athletics. The station has broadcasted several games over the air this year. Cornwell is currently an intern at The Lift. Some of his duties include giving color commentary at Finlandia home games, and doing a weekly segment titled “This week in Finlandia sports.” “With them being in their first year,” said Cornwell, “they’re kind of letting me do what I want. Just do it. Try new things and it should be good.” To get ready for color commenting, Cornwell did “a lot of prep work. I had to know guys’ names, I would talk to players on our team, and before the game I would maybe talk to players on their team.”

With graduation in the near future, Cornwell has been working on his senior capstone, a project all students in the Suomi College of Arts and Sciences must complete prior to graduation. “Again, Monique has helped me a lot. It’s been challenging, but it’s been a good experience,” Cornwell mentioned. The focus of Cornwell’s project is “Masculinity within sports talk radio.” Podcasting was a motivating force behind Cornwell’s project, and after reading several sources and books, he learned about masculinity and gender roles within sports talk radio.

Entering his senior year, Cornwell studied abroad in London for two weeks through the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad (CCSA). CCSA is a partnership that Finlandia has with several other schools. “It was a great experience. I got to go to Scotland, to Paris. It was a lot of fun.” Cornwell highly suggests study abroad to other students, encouraging them to get out of the comfort zone. Study abroad opportunities for this summer are up now.

Study Abroad

January in the Keweenaw means Heikinpäivä, is fast approaching. A list of all the events came be seen here.

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Tags: 99.3 The Lift, CCSA, Dr. Monique Bourdage, Travis Cornwell