As another year wraps up and seniors prepare to graduate, some are leaving behind a club they founded.
The Appalachian Society for Communication Studies was founded by Colton McNeill in 2025. As a public relations major, McNeill found there were few places for students in the Department of Communication outside of groups centered around digital journalism or electronic media and broadcasting, leaving out communication studies, public relations and advertising majors.
Although the club is open to every major, as McNeill believes communication is an important skill that everyone should have, he said its target demographic is communication students.
Meetings are hosted by McNeill and sometimes by one of three vice presidents. In the past, they have hosted speakers such as Melanie Sleime, the assistant vice president of human resources at Iredell Health System, and Amaadi Yeboah, an App State alum and executive administrative assistant at Nurturing Nest Residential Home.
Other ASCS meetings center on fun events or community building. Recently, the club announced the president for 2026-27: junior public relations major Camille Sudol.
McNeill acted as a mentor toward Sudol, working closely this past semester to prepare her for her upcoming role. He did so by involving her in emails sent to the department and to advisors. He also talked about specific situations that he has gone through and asked what she would do differently compared to what he did in the past.
“I don’t want you to continue doing something only because I did it in the past. It’s stupid to continue doing it the same I do it if it’ll get you the same result,” McNeill said.
In the job search process, McNeill said it’s impressive to be able to tell a recruiter he put “all the blood, sweat and tears” into founding a club.
“It just shows overall that you clearly have the organizational skills at the very least,” McNeill said.
Although she does not graduate until the fall semester, Valeria Sierra Rey, a senior theatre arts major, will be leaving behind the App State Voice Acting Club, which was founded in 2025.
Sierra Rey started voice acting in high school and said dealing with performance anxiety is why she decided to create the club.
“Knowing that there’s other people who like or want to act but are kind of scared to be on a stage, I kind of decided to make the Voice Acting Club to be a space for those who want to explore the arts,” Sierra Rey said.
The App State Voice Acting Club meets every two weeks. During the club’s first semester, meetings consisted of workshops where Sierra Rey would talk to people about the basics of voiceover work.
Since discovering the audio recording room in the lower level of Belk Library and Information Commons, Sierra Rey reserves this space so her club can do more hands-on activities.
Sierra Rey said some of the inspiration for the club’s meetings comes from her classes.
For one of their meetings, club members worked on their accents by recording the FitnessGram Pacer Test in different accents, like Russian, British, French and even a Brooklyn accent.
“I took a class called advanced voice, and a portion of that class we learned about accents,” Sierra Rey said. “And so I showed the paperwork that I was given by my professor and showed them how to do it.”
Due to Sierra Rey being in a time-demanding major, she says that it can be a bit hectic, but she manages her time well.
Due to Sierra Rey being in a time-demanding major, she says that it can be a bit hectic, but she manages her time well.
She says she does not stress over the club. People are always welcome to come to meetings if they can, but it is not a requirement. She also tries to be flexible with the club’s schedule by working with its members and her executive team.