
Sunday, May 11, 2008
A reflection on an amazing opportunity

Sunday, May 4, 2008
Some goals I have in mind...
As far as the fall semester is concerned, I plan on making sure I really adhere to my calendar I created for Capstone. I really want to be on top of managing the highlights for Coach’s Corner, our weekly sports feature show, and Titan Town Sports. Also, week by week I want to implement the highlights that I edit into my compilation video for my project. It’s going to be a great deal of work for me, but I really believe I can do it and make it look amazing. I’m confident that I will really enjoy this project and with the goals I have set, I’m confident that this can be a fantastic project to present come December.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
A presidential address close to home
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Entering the world of the E-portfolio
This week I, along with the rest of the Capstone class, had the opportunity to visit the career center to work on our portfolio building skills. This made me a bit anxious, since the only experience I have with portfolio building is creating my resume and some air check tapes. Much to my surprise, the informational meeting with Career Center Director, Jackie Meade, and Assistant Director, Kati Edmiston, worked much to my benefit. Jackie explained the importance of building a professional portfolio and what to include in it. She talked at length with the class about what the difficult aspects of broadcasting are for each of us. Many of us commented on the deadlines and how that could possibly the most difficult part of being in broadcasting. Others mentioned working odd hours and being on call, while some others mentioned coming up with fresh story ideas. Jackie explained that in there will always be difficulties, no matter what career we choose to pursue, but if we work on those difficulties now we will better handle them when we enter the professional world.
After speaking with Jackie, Kati Edmiston took us into the workroom of the Career Center to show us, first hand, what an E-portfolio looks like. She featured many examples, especially ones regarding broadcasting. Going through the set up process for an E-portfolio was particularly easy. Kati explained we could set our up on PowerPoint and format it anyway we wanted. The examples she provided were filled with all the information a potential employer could want, as well as colorful and artist design to easily catch someone’s eye. She showed us how to link our resume, cover letters, demo tapes, and other examples of our work within the E-portfolio. After showing us how to set up the E-portfolio, I felt much better about creating it. I’m not entirely technologically savvy, so when I heard about this E-portfolio business, need less to say, I was skeptical about doing it. Kati’s instructions and tips really helped me and made me look at the E-portfolio in a whole new way; she even provided a help sheet with the full instructions and some of her own tips to the class. I believe her presentation was helpful for the entire class, especially with us getting ready to begin our internships for the summer and having time to start our E-portfolios before our final semester of Capstone starts up this coming fall. Overall, the trip to the Career Center is exactly what I needed to cure my fears of making an E-portfolio. I learned many valuable tips from both Kati and Jackie and will be putting them to use in the very near future as I continue developing my Capstone project and, consequently, when I matriculate into the professional world.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
My Capstone proposal: A touchdown in the making?

Sunday, April 6, 2008
References: What can they do for you?

A few of my references are pretty obvious, simply because I have been around them much more than my others.
Lead sports newscaster and also Sports Director at WYTV in Youngstown, Bob Hannon, offered his knowledge to a number of broadcast majors the ways of announcing sports last semester in his Sports Broadcasting class. It was quite an experience and an honor to have someone so well respected in the profession teaching us the ins and outs of sports casting. Mr. Hannon was a great person to go to with advice on careers and was always willing to offer advice to how to make our broadcast projects better.
Bob Pompeani, lead sports caster and Sports Director at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, is someone I have enjoyed watching on KDKA for many years now. I have also been fortunate enough to come to know him through various community events. He has always been someone who always has the time to speak with me about my career path and goals. He is always one to offer great advice and was the first person to suggest that I should apply to the internship at KDKA. He has been a great help and, I believe, will become one of my greatest references as I complete my Sports Internship at the station.
Current athletic director and volleyball coach at my alma mater, Michael McDonald (aka Coach Mac to students, friends, and parents), proved to be an unlikely resource in my quest to locate references. At first, I just thought that I could only use his expertise on being a long time athletic director, but once I thought about it, I realized Coach Mac has done so much more than that. He currently sits on both the district and state committees for boys and girls volleyball, in addition to being a long-standing athletic director. He deals extensively with the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) through being both a volleyball committee member and also athletic director. He has always been someone willing to help me and could provide great advice and insight on working with school districts and/or leagues, like the WPIAL.
These are just a few of my potential references. All three of these resources can provide me with a wealth of information, primarily in sports, I will need upon entering the job race. I have many other references that I am seeking, but I believe this is a great start. I plan on keeping open communication with these, and many of my other resources, in hopes that they can provide constructive criticism, guidance, and positive reinforcement as I work my way into the wide world of sports marketing.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Some thoughts on my Capstone...
As far as mapping out my project, I’m thinking Prof. Weaver’s assignment of creating a calendar of daily or weekly goals and assignments we have will be the best way to keep organized and on top of things. I’m working on my rough version of my calendar as I write this. I’m hard at work jotting down what I will do each week, such as blog and help with The County Line, and what contacts I have to make. One of my main objectives is to keep in good contact with the people that I will be seeing on a regular basis. There is nothing more important than communication, especially when it comes to something as serious as my senior project. I want to ensure that everything I complete is up to their standards. Another important thing to document in my calendar will be how much of my project will I undertake in a week. I would like to dedicate as much time as I can on a weekly basis to my project. This will require scheduling around other classes, events, and meetings. I really believe that this calendar will be an excellent tool in scheduling and keeping up to date with my senior project. I’m also thinking that this project, while challenging, will be a true testament to what I have learned here as a Broadcast Communications major and what I can contribute to a career when I graduate. It’s really going to be interesting to see how this project works out. I’m off to a good start I think, with working out the details in my mind. Now, all I have to do is get a formal plan ready and in the works. I think once I start putting more of my thoughts and ideas on paper this project is going to be full speed ahead.