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Campus Media

By David Nathan

Lasell’s campus media outlets not only serve as Connected Learning laboratories for students to apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world situations — The 1851 Chronicle, WLAS Radio, LCTV, POLISHED Magazine, and Tarnished give students opportunities to lead, collaborate, make friends, and develop the soft skills that will benefit them regardless of the career field they choose. These five Lasell alumni have parlayed their campus media experiences into fulfilling careers.

Zac Vierra '13 | Manager of Social Media, Major League Baseball

“There is only so much you can learn in a classroom,” he recalls. “I felt The 1851 Chronicle was the best class I took.”

Zac Vierra ’13 still remembers his first big “scoop” as a first-year reporter at The 1851 Chronicle.

At the urging of Professor Marie Franklin, whom he had met during a visit to campus as a high school senior, Vierra joined Lasell’s student newspaper early in his freshman year. Returning to campus for the spring semester in January, he learned from friends in Woodland Hall that some of their belongings had gone missing over winter break. He pursued the story aggressively, and it made the front page.

“It was my first big story and kind of put me on the map,” remembers Vierra, who has worked for Major League Baseball since 2016, the last two years as manager of social media. “Professor Franklin was very impressed.”

Franklin, the faculty advisor for the Chronicle, subsequently promoted Vierra to sports editor, managing editor, and then editor in chief. The experience proved invaluable for the communication major (sports communication concentration), who has wanted to cover sports since writing about the Red Sox for his elementary school newspaper.

“There is only so much you can learn in a classroom,” he recalls. “I felt The 1851 Chronicle was the best class I took.”

While the Chronicle, his classes, and working for The Boston Globe and Cape Cod Baseball League’s Bourne Braves helped build his skills, Vierra’s experience in Rome doing study abroad during his junior year developed a personal characteristic that has also served him enormously well.

“It was great to be so uncomfortable,” Vierra recalls. “It felt like I was starting college again. It helped me meet new people and get out of my shell.”

After his experience in Rome, “putting himself out there” by networking, pursuing every job lead he could find in a competitive field, and pursuing early-career jobs in Montana and Florida did not feel so intimidating. “Going to Rome was the best decision I could have made,” he concludes.

Photo by Gabby Ricciardi

Vanessa Wojtusiak '07: Radio Marketing, Promotions, and Station Management Executive

“My college experience helped me grow. In my younger years, I was kind of shy, so being put into leadership positions and collaborating with people with different perspectives really helped me get to the level where I am now.”

Five years ago, as the newly appointed vice president of marketing at iHeartMedia Connecticut, Vanessa Wojtusiak ’07 returned to the building where she first discovered the allure of a radio career as a 16-year-old high school intern helping to promote alternative rock station WMRQ 104.

“I started here in high school in the promotions and marketing department and now I’m running that department,” she said from her office in Hartford, Connecticut, before leaving iHeart this fall. “It was a big full-circle moment.”

While many people starting out in radio aspire to become on-air personalities, Wojtusiak always preferred the business side — marketing, promotions, and station management.

“I love the behind-the-scenes work and pulling everyone together to create a great event rather than being the center of attention.” she says. “I want to give the on-air staff a foundation to maximize their talents and listeners a compelling reason to tune in.”

While a student at Lasell, Wojtusiak worked at WBCN Radio in Boston since there was no outlet on campus. Professor Brian Wardyga approached her about starting a campus radio station to provide students with real-world experience. With Wojtusiak helping with the buildout, format, and on-air schedule, a radio club grew into WLAS 102.9 FM. The station celebrated its 20th anniversary this fall.

“My college experience helped me grow,” she recalls. “In my younger years, I was kind of shy, so being put into leadership positions and collaborating with people with different perspectives really helped me get to the level where I am now.”

Wojtusiak worked for Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) through college, then joined EMI Music Group in New York City to help promote its artists on radio after graduation. She returned to iHeartMedia to build the mobile app and later worked as the national director of social marketing and engagement. After a time at WTNH-TV in New Haven, Connecticut, she returned to iHeartMedia in 2019.

“This is what I have wanted to do since high school,” she says. “I feel very fortunate.”

Photo by Nick Rezendes Photography

Michael Bueno '18: Freelance photographer, cinematographer, producer, filmmaker, and Lasell adjunct faculty member

“I am doing exactly what I wanted: creating, helping with strategy, and working with people on my same wavelength.”

Michael Bueno ’18 describes himself as a full-time freelancer and part-time educator — and credits his Lasell experience with helping him flourish in the dual careers he always sought.

The photographer/cinematographer/producer/filmmaker’s work has been featured in Forbes and Business Insider, and his lengthy client list includes Intel, Life is Good, and Spindrift. For the last three semesters, he has also served as an adjunct professor of video production at Lasell.

“I just kept pursuing this idea of being an artist and being a creator,” Bueno says with a hint of wonderment in his voice. “I am doing exactly what I wanted: creating, helping with strategy, and working with people on my same wavelength.”

The 32-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran transferred to Lasell from Mount Wachusett Community College in the fall of 2016 with the goal of becoming a visual artist.

Encouraged by Professors Marie Franklin, Meryl Perlson, and Stephen Fischer, Bueno supplemented what he was learning in the classroom by working at several campus media outlets: The 1851 Chronicle, POLISHED Magazine, LCTV, and WLAS radio. He wrote and edited, took photos, shot video, and even produced a radio promo that is still in circulation.

Bueno joined the Chronicle despite having little writing experience. “I jumped in knowing I would feel uncomfortable but would grow from the experience,” he remembers. “It helped me get more well-rounded.” He went on to become opinion editor, art director, and co-editor in chief.

Bueno handled the photography for a couple of POLISHED covers, an experience that led directly to Bueno landing an internship at Hive.Studio during his senior year and a job after graduation as a production artist at Life is Good. He earned his MFA from Emerson College in 2023.

Returning to Lasell as a faculty member was a full-circle moment for Bueno. “I always told myself that if I had the opportunity to help an institution that helped me that I would do it,” he says. “To see students apply what I have taught them and seeing it all click is very fulfilling.”

Photo by Allison Sepanek

Drew Gundlach '08 G'13: Senior Director of Creative, Franklin Sports, and Lasell adjunct faculty member

“The beauty of POLISHED is it looks real and stands up well to other fashion-type magazines. It serves as a really good portfolio piece.”

In the vernacular of the sport that is both his vocation and avocation, Drew Gundlach ’08 G’13 has hit a home run at Franklin Sports.

Gundlach’s job as senior director of creative at the Massachusetts-based sporting goods company allows him to combine his love for sports and design. The family-owned business gave him the professional freedom to build an 18-person, in-house creative agency that produces and develops Franklin’s marketing and branding assets.

“I started at Franklin 16 years ago as an entry-level artist and now work with professional athletes and contribute to the global company’s brand presence,” the 38-year-old says from the All-Star Game in Arlington, Texas, where he and a dozen of his colleagues showcased the ubiquitous Franklin batting gloves and other company products.

Gundlach credits Lasell, in particular his time at POLISHED Magazine, for getting him to first base in his design career. He assisted with layout as a sophomore and moved up to art director as a junior and senior. His work helped him secure a job with Franklin as a catalog production artist a few months after graduation.

“The beauty of POLISHED is it looks real and stands up well to other fashion-type magazines,” he says. “It serves as a really good portfolio piece.”

At POLISHED, he also learned valuable lessons about the importance of flexibility and teamwork. “We would often have to change and recalibrate our plans,” he recalls. “That real-life experience taught me about the need to adapt and figure things out.”

Perhaps most importantly, Gundlach found his soulmate at Lasell. He and Molly Fawcett ’09 met in an art history class in 2007 and were married four years later. “We both made sure we were in the same group for a group project,” Gundlach remembers. “It was love at first sight for both.”

Photo by Mickey Howard

David McInnis '03: President and Founding Partner, Willard Powell

“I understood that to be sustainable the newspaper had to be about culture building and inspiring the community. I am proud of what we accomplished.”

The first person Professor Steve Bloom approached in 2002 about reviving the Lasell student newspaper was not an aspiring reporter but a business major, campus leader, and lacrosse player. Reaching out to David McInnis ’03 proved to be a wise decision.

McInnis saw The 1851 Chronicle as much more than a laboratory for young journalists. He envisioned the campus media outlet as a vital tool to build community, promote Lasell’s uniqueness, and create a sense of institutional pride.

“I understood that to be sustainable the newspaper had to be about culture building and inspiring the community,” McInnis recalls. “I am proud of what we accomplished.”

When he returns to Lasell, the former University trustee (2011–2023) enjoys visiting the Chronicle newsroom and catching up on campus news. He has generously supported the newspaper through a series of gifts and remains eternally grateful to former faculty advisor Marie Franklin.

McInnis fondly recalls the initial newspaper meetings of about 20 students in the fall of 2002, teaching himself desktop publishing, walking around campus with a notepad and talking to students and faculty, settling on the newspaper’s name, and bringing the first issue to an off-campus publisher on a CD-ROM.

“It was a great group of people who were really committed to creating something that would last,” McInnis says.

Despite his experience at the Chronicle, McInnis never contemplated a career in communications after graduation. Instead, he used what he had learned at the newspaper — appreciating different viewpoints, managing and collaborating with peers, conducting meaningful interviews, and meeting deadlines — to build a successful career as a corporate recruiter.

When he launched his own executive search firm, Willard Powell, in 2011, he found himself reflecting on his experience building the Chronicle into a viable enterprise. “From Lasell onward, I knew that I wanted to venture out on my own and build a business,” he remembers. “I first acquired the skills to do it at Lasell.”