Capstone presenations!

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the capstone presentations of Chris, Kirstan, and Steve because of a little thing called night class. I was also sicker than a dog last week, so it's probably best that I didn't go. I would have been coughing and sneezing throughout the entire thing. My bosses at FSN MADE me leave Wednesday morning after only being there an hour because I was so sick.

Seriously, though, I am sure that the three of them did very well and I wish them the best of luck wherever they go.

I was able to attend all of the capstone presentations last year, though, and I got some ideas for mine as well. I would love to use the E-portfolio to keep things organized like Alana and Kirstan did. I have a lot of things to show, and I think that would be the best way to do it. I really need to begin working on that soon.

I want to play samples of my work, also. I have some audio clips of newscasts saved, and next semester I want to have at least one package to showcase. I've only done about three since I've been at WC, and I want to edit one digitally. I will have a lot of extra time (compared to this semester, at least), so I should be able to get one done.

I definitely plan on integrating the work I have done at my internship into my capstone presentation and talking about how it has changed my career goals and the next steps that I plan to take.

Speaking of the internship, I only have ten days left. I can't believe it's almost over. I get to work at Heinz Field Friday for the WPIAL football championships and promote FSN by having people sign up for our e-mail service and passing out t-shirts and hats. That should be a lot of fun!

My turn to be David Letterman...

For this week's blog, I'm going to share five reasons how Westminster has been beneficial to my broadcasting career (so far). There are a lot more than five, but I hope people will read this and realize why WC really is a step ahead of other schools.

1. I got involved right away. And I mean, right away.
The first week of my freshman year, I was barely 18 years old and scared to death about the broadcasting major and getting involved with it. But I decided to put my fears aside and travel to New Castle High School for the first high school football remote broadcast of the year. I remember this was the first time I met the fabulous Liz Farry, who, like me, was just beginning a long journey. Chuck threw us in right away, and that night I was shooting out replays for the football game like crazy. How many other schools would let you do that in your first week? I bet not too many.

2. Opportunities galore!
Broadcasting students at Westminster have so many chances to find what they really love in the field, mostly because there is so much to do. There are opportunities in television with anchoring, reporting, and producing The County Line and Coach's Corner, not to mention working behind the scenes with cameras, audio, graphics, etc.! There are opportunities in sports announcing and helping in the production of live football and basketball games. There are opportunities with anchoring, reporting, and producing news on Titan Radio 88.9 FM. There are radio DJ shifts. There is just so much to do here, and it's really important to try it ALL. That's how you find your passion.

3. I got jobs before I even graduated!
Thanks to one Dr. Barner, I landed a whopping three jobs from being a broadcasting major at WC. Of course, two of them were on campus - the first being a radio DJ and news anchor/producer in the summers and over Christmas break. That helped me to keep my skills in tact over break, so I was ready to roll when school began. The second was a work-study job with Chuck, in which I was basically his personal assistant and helped him out with high school broadcasts and administrative work.

Last, but not least, Dr. B helped me land a job at a commercial radio station before my junior year of college even began. 2005 Alum Megan Marshall had been working in the newsroom at WKST, and she left once she received a radio disc jockey job in Ohio. Dr. B recommended me to the program director, who then gave me a buzz and pretty much offered me the job on the spot. I really think working at WKST has helped me to gain a better sense of the real world and what life may be like after graduation. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the station is literally one mile away from my house.

4. Awesome alumni
How cool are some of the people who have graduated from WC? Tim Kaiser, Denny Wolfe, Andrew McKelvey, Amber Brkich? I also love the fact that Pittsburgh sports are so well represented by WC grads. The former media relations director of the Penguins, the current media relations directors for the Steelers and FSN Pittsburgh? Yep, all Westminster grads. That gives me a little hope for the future, and it's quite obvious that so many people from this college have made names for themselves. I'm pretty sure almost everyone knows someone who graduated from WC.

5. A dream come true
The best thing to happen to me in these past four years is landing the internship of my dreams, and I really doubt that it would have happened if it weren't for Westminster. It's given me the opportunity to fill up my resume and gain the experience needed to succeed in this business. The coolest thing is that I am doing a marketing/PR internship, and I was chosen over people who specifically majored in those fields. Mr. Weaver has said many times that BC majors at Westminster are plenty qualified for PR jobs, maybe even more so than the PR majors!

So, this entry probably comes off as a big brag fest, and I don't mean it to be that way. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, believe me. I just think that Westminster deserves to be touted very highly in terms of the broadcasting curriculum, and those are just a few examples why.

My disappearing blog

I swear that I blogged last week. I did. I just don't know where it went.

Never mind. I just realized that I hit "save as draft" instead of "publish post" and I found it. It's up for everyone to see now.

Anyway, this week we are supposed to blog about someone else's blog. As someone who spent four years as a broadcasting major and is starting to lean toward the public relations/marketing field, I chose Alana Schuring's blog. She had an internship doing media relations for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and it seemed very similar to the internship that I am doing now. I actually have had the chance to work with the Pirates, as well as the Penguins and the Steelers' media relations departments in my internship, and I have loved every second of it.

Reading through Alana's blog, I have realized that I'm kind of aiming toward the same goals that she was in her senior year, and one of those goals is networking. She had the chance to speak with various professionals in the media relations and marketing fields, and I am glad that I am getting the chance to do that with my internship. I actually got to meet an executive from Fox Sports New York yesterday, which was really cool. The best thing about it is that even though all of these people are serious professionals, they couldn't be more helpful.

Alana and I both worked with the MLB All-Star Game in Pittsburgh this past summer, too. She worked there because of her internship, and I got my internship because I worked there, so that's kind of funny, too.

I found one blog entry that was particularly interesting, in which she had lunch with the bosses from the Pirates and was able to touch base with them some time after her internship actually ended. I am really counting on keeping in touch with my bosses at FSN Pittsburgh, and I hope that it will help me in my extensive job search, which will begin sooner than I think!

I haven't had the chance to keep in touch with Alana since she graduated, so I am not quite sure what she's doing now. I will have to shoot her an e-mail and see if she was able to land a job in sports or entertainment marketing.

An Update

Well, it's about time to update everyone on what's going on with broadcasting stuff. Considering that time to breathe is very sparse these days, I haven't done a whole lot.

The BC 311 students are airchecking this week, and I plan on using a couple of those newscasts for my senior project. I guess I erased the really good newscast I had earlier in the year, so I don't have one of my own. I don't want to re-record it or aircheck any more newscasts this semester because they won't be resume worthy. Unfortunately, I am the new owner of a flashy set of braces and a retainer, and I am having troubles with my "s's". It was really difficult for me to get through my newscast this morning. It's kind of discouraging, and I'm worried about my job at WKST...after all, I am a news anchor. I hope I just need to get used to having a mouth full of metal.

The good news is that I saved a couple of resume-worthy newscasts on my flash drive, so I might be able to use one of those as well.

I'm working on the power point for my alumni presentation, and I have yet to transcribe the interview. I'll get started on that next week.

I have to fill in at WKST next Thursday and Friday morning. Weekdays are absolutely insane at that place, and I have no clue how I'm going to do 14 newscasts with my little speech impediment.

I also only have one month left of my internship, which makes me very sad. :(

Well, that's all in my neck of the woods for now.