A live radio show kicks off “Comm Week” at the Wichita State Elliott School of Communication this morning at 9 a.m.

Comm Week is an annual event to expose journalism students to trends in the communication field.

Lou Heldman, the interim director of the Elliott School, said Comm Week started in 1989 when the communication school was founded. Heldman said the two-day event engages students with professionals in the field.

“It’s an excellent experience to meet with professionals in the field, and to get information that may be valuable in thinking about careers in communication,” he said.

Heldman said 26 sessions, large and small, are scheduled and the Elliott School tries to appeal to students’ many interests in the field.

Comm Week features speakers who work in communications. This includes Elliott School graduates Jeremy Hubbard and Jennifer Wright, who are the outstanding alumni for the Elliott School this year.

“Jeremy is an outstanding speaker, and he’s had a great career,” communication assistant professor Amy DeVault said. “Jennifer was a student when I had just started teaching here, and I know she’ll be inspiring to our students. Her success really came from a project that started here at the Elliott School. It’s fun to see the things that happen here lead to careers.”

DeVault and associate professor Kevin Hager are leading a session about the Symphony in the Flint Hills Media Project. DeVault said this year will be more hands-on than the past two years.

“Mostly we’re going to showcase student work,” she said. “In fact, we’re having four or five of the students who were on the project, and they will talk about their favorite pieces. They will talk about what they gained and what they learned from the experience, so it’s mostly them talking during the session. Kevin and I will kind of bookend with our thoughts about the project.”

Sessions and activities for Comm Week will take place through the day and conclude tomorrow with a toast to the late Les Anderson, a journalism professor at the Elliott School from 1977-2011, starting at 6 p.m. at El Agave, 3320 N. Rock Rd.

DeVault said she enjoys Comm Week because the instructors can learn, too.

“The instructors, when we’re not doing the lecturing or leading the sessions, then we become kind of students, too,” she said. “We’re mingling with students, and taking part and listening to great presentations from teachers, too. We get to spend time with all of our students in a less formal setting. I like the community part of the Elliott School.”

To view a full schedule of Comm Week events, visit the Elliott School’s website at www.wichita.edu/esc, click on “Comm Week 2012” and click on the poster to download the schedule.