BU COM launches media start-up COMLab for students to gain professional experience during pandemic
PHOTO BY SERENA ZHANG. Boston University's College of Communication launched a student-run media start-up on Thursday called COMLab. Over 100 COM students spent the last two months working to prepare for the launch.
By Serena Zhang
Boston University’s College of Communication launched COMLab, a new student-run media initiative that is designed as a credit-bearing professional experience and internship opportunity for COM students to alleviate the pressure COVID-19 pandemic puts on them, on Thursday. The organization has been meeting and planning since late May for the website launch.
COMLab consists of four divisions led by students, including Division of News and Information, Division of Enterprise Communications, Division of Performance and Entertainment, and Division of Engagement and Strategy. Each of the divisions has a variety of projects and departments established. Participants are able to create or participate in one or more projects under those divisions.
More than 100 COM students are currently registered, and are developing 15 unique projects, including podcasts, TV shows, an interactive game, virtual events and research. COMLab publishes the projects on its website.
According to Dustin Supa, the senior associate dean and one of the initiators and faculty advisors of COMLab, while having a lot of traditional projects, COMLab has some unique characteristics that differentiate it from other existing programs within COM.
It is not only operated remotely and driven by students' ideas, but also allows students with different disciplinary backgrounds to create and collaborate on projects that don’t fit in one specific area.
“We want students to work together with the real opportunity to take on the challenges that they’ve always wanted to, but maybe hadn’t had the opportunity,” Supa said. “It is the creativity and drive that makes a BU COM student so amazing.”
Victoria Bortoluzzi, a graduate student studying public relations in COM and the director of the Division of Enterprise Communications, wrote in an email that she has learned a lot from people studying different majors and working for different organizations.
“It's amazing to see our vision coming to life from many creative people,” Bortoluzzi said.
“There are so many different creative minds coming under one umbrella to make something great.”
Along with her teammates and other directors, Michelle Gold, a senior studying advertising in COM '21 and the leader of COMLab branding team, captured this interdisciplinary and collaborative characteristic of COMLab and designed a logo that fits this idea.
With a five-color gradient color ring around “COMLab,” the logo shows that each branch of COMLab has its own color but they also blend and work together, Gold said.
According to Supa, the idea of an integrated media organization started a few years ago, but it wasn’t implemented until this summer. The coronavirus pandemic was the main drive of its implementation.
In fact, many participants see COMLab as a substitute for the internship opportunities they lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Steve Bao, a junior majoring in film and TV and economics, was unable to return to China because he was unsure when the travel restriction between the United States and China would be lifted.
After losing his internship opportunity in China as a result, he said that COMLab was like a “remedy” because it was too late for international students like him to apply for OPT, a permission that enables international students to work in the United States.
Bortoluzzi and Gold said that they initially decided to join COMLab because of the difficulty and uncertainty of internships for the summer and were excited for the opportunity.
“I love that I have been able to meet new people in COM, even though we are spread throughout the world,” Gold said. “It's incredible that COM has given students a platform to create whatever they want.”
Regina Luo, a junior majoring in public relations in COM, said that the progress of the projects and COMLab has been slow at the start.
“Because I am really excited for this opportunity, I want to produce more in this limited 12-weeks’ time,” she said.
In response, Supa said that COMLab is a work in progress as the organization kicks off and looks forward to seeing where students take COMLab in the future.
“I am so proud of each of the students who took on the challenge of participating in COMLab,” Supa said. “I hope that students come to COMLab, and will continue to come to COMLab, for the experience of creating something they have envisioned, and want to make it a reality.”