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.