MSU students put on rock shows for charity

Although many students might hold post-exam celebrations at a bar or a club, for the students in Nick Bowman’s Communications 399 class, planning a night out on the town is the final exam.

The class, Promoting and Managing Popular Music Groups: The (Real) Business of Rock, teaches communication students how to plan an event, and then requires them to organize a charity concert as their final exam. The students’ final projects will be taking place this week at four different locations in East Lansing and Lansing.

“This is definitely one of the more interesting classes I’ve taken,” communication senior Andrew Case said. “It’s definitely more hands-on.”

Case’s group is planning an event that will be held Wednesday night at Dublin Square Irish Pub, 327 Abbot Road, and will benefit the Michigan Children’s Trust Fund, an organization that promotes the welfare of families and focuses on the prevention of child abuse.

Case said the inexperience of himself and his group members has led to some challenges.

“There’s been a few stressful moments — those deadlines that need to be met,” Case said.

Bowman, the course’s instructor and a graduate student, gained experience planning concerts while in St. Louis, Mo., and brought this to the classroom to teach students practical lessons.

“We always talk about how you can apply what you know — public relations, marketing, advertising, journalism, media theory — in class,” Bowman said, “But many students, … even ones who intern, rarely get a chance to actually put any of the things they learn in their degrees to use until after they graduate.”

Communication senior Max Manoogian said his goal is to become the mayor of Detroit and the class has taught him how to engage many different people, a skill that would be useful while on the campaign trail.

“It gives you the opportunity to learn how to interact with people and businesses,” Manoogian said.

Scott Marcou, the general manager of The Riviera Cafe Restaurant and Lounge, 231 M.A.C Ave. is hosting one of the students’ concerts tonight because he felt it was a good cause. He said this will be the first charity concert held at the location and that the students from the class were enjoyable to work with.

“Before they even came to me, they already had an outline of what they envisioned,” Marcou said.

Cheryl Loveday, the excutive director of Angels’ Place, a nonprofit organization that assists developmental disorders, is benefiting from the concert held Wednesday a Mac’s Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave., in Lansing. Loveday said the concert will help stimulate conversation about the needs of people with disabilities.

“Working with the MSU students has been a positive experience,” Loveday said. “They’re so energetic, and they have such great ideas, and they just are really full of energy and love and compassion.”