For a few hours during BGSU Homecoming, the BG Falcon Media tent became a meeting place for generations of students and alumni who all had one thing in common: at some point, they called BG Falcon Media and Bowling Green home.
Recent graduates stopped by to reconnect with former classmates. Current students met alumni whose careers have taken them well beyond Bowling Green. Others returned after decades away and found that while BG Falcon Media may look different today, many of the relationships built here have stayed the same.
For Falcon Media Manager Karl Smith, that mix of generations is part of what makes Homecoming important.
“We have a lot of recent grads, but we have grads from almost every decade,” Smith said. “I think it helps them build their network, which is really what we want to do.”
Smith said the alumni network reaches far beyond Bowling Green, with former student journalists and media professionals working across the country.
“At the end of the day, who you know matters,” Smith said. “Our students are learning that, and we have a great alumni network who can support them.”
For Jared Wadley ’89, those relationships are exactly why he continues coming back.
Wadley, who studied journalism at BGSU and now works at the University of Michigan, said he has returned to BGSU for Homecoming many times since moving back to the Midwest after previously living in California.
For him, the draw is less about the campus itself and more about the people he met here.
“It’s mainly the people,” Wadley said. “That’s why I come back. It’s the people.”
He said there’s something different about reconnecting in person with people who were once classmates, coworkers and friends. Even with social media, FaceTime and Zoom making it easier to stay in contact, Wadley said it’s not the same as being together again.
Coming back has also given him a chance to watch BG Falcon Media evolve.
When Wadley was a student, he remembers groups such as The BG News operating more independently. Today, he sees BG Falcon Media bringing areas of student media together under a larger umbrella and giving students opportunities to explore different parts of the industry.
That access stood out to current BG Falcon Media student Vaughn Ullom as well.
Ullom said being involved with BG Falcon Media has given him opportunities he didn’t expect when he transferred to BGSU from Arizona State. Homecoming also gave him the chance to reconnect with recent graduates and meet other alumni willing to help current students build their own networks.
“They’re happy to get you connected with their network,” Ullom said. “If you’re interested in continuing in this field, they’re happy to give you that support.”
Those conversations are part of what Cheryl Bracken, director of the BGSU School of Media and Communication, hopes current students take away from events like Homecoming.
Bracken said hearing alumni talk about where their experiences at Bowling Green took them, can give current students a better sense of what may be possible after graduation.
“I think what I hope is that they see possibilities,” Bracken said.
For Wadley, many of those possibilities started with simply getting involved.
He began working with The BG News as a freshman and eventually built experience through internships that helped launch his career. Looking back, he said he wishes he had explored even more while he was at BGSU, whether that meant photography, radio, another language or another skill that could have made him more versatile.
His advice to students now is to take advantage of those opportunities early, build relationships and start thinking about what they can bring to a future employer before graduation.
It’s a lesson that comes back to the same reason Homecoming continues bringing Falcon Media alumni back year after year.
The buildings change, the technology changes and the way students produce media changes, but the people and connections made along the way are what keep bringing them home.
