Ten Minute Interview!?

As I've mentioned in previous posts, my college experience at Westminster has been a challenging, yet extremely worthwhile journey. Looking back I can see how all the classes and projects have really transformed me into the young professional that I am today. Coming in as a freshman, I was nervous, shy, and not really sure of what I wanted to do. Now that I'm a senior I can look back and see how I have really transformed throughout the years, not just my focus, but my whole attitude. There are several classes that I believe have played a large role in making me who I am today.

TV and Radio announcing with Dr. B was one of my BC electives second semester of my sophomore year. I first decided to take this class because it sounded like fun and I really enjoy having Dr. B as a professor. However, on the first day of class I was second guessing myself when we were handed a syllabus with all of the assignments we would be doing throughout the semester. Ten-minute interviews, live radio remotes, and so much more. I was overwhelmed and wasn't sure if I would make it through this class.

One of my first ten-minute interviews for this class was to be with Kayla, who is a blind student. It was to be used as part of the Round Table series for Titan Radio. I was extremely nervous. I remember thinking, "how do I get in contact with her?" " Do I send her an e-mail?" "Does she even have e-mail?" I know it may sound silly, but just getting in contact with her and going about asking her to do an interview was a little bit of a challenge for me. The second challenge for me was figuring out what kind of questions to ask her. I had to do a lot of research and come up with many questions that I thought would be appropriate for the interview. To my surprise, probably the easiest part of this whole project was the interview itself. Kayla was such an easy person to talk with and was willling to talk about anything and everything. That long ten minutes ended up flying by for me.

I had many more projects like this for TV and Radio announcing, and as the semester went on I could see myself really improving and getting more comfortable with radio interviews. This class truly was an eye-opening experience. I realized then that if I was going to be in this business I can't be a shy person and I can't be intimidated by simple assignments. I also learned that by challenging myself I actually gain a lot more rather than always looking for the easy way out. I'm very thankful for all of the classes, professors, and projects that have challenged me to get me where I am today.