College is a high-pressure, stressful and formative experience for anyone fortunate enough to pursue a higher level education. It isn’t always easy to seek out and take advantage of every potential opportunity that is offered because of classwork, maintaining a social life and handling the responsibilities of everyday living.
However, if you are currently enrolled in classes and you are not participating in student media, then you are doing yourself a disservice. SCAD Atlanta Radio, The Connector and SCAN Magazine are award-winning organizations that provide students with hands-on work experience.
Even if you have no interest in broadcast or journalism, there are still opportunities for work that span the entire spectrum of majors offered at SCAD. Whether you are a graphic designer, illustrator, writer, fashion marketer or involved in film and television, the opportunities student media offers are beneficial to everyone — and their resumes.
I am a fourth-year writing student, nearing the end of my time at SCAD. I can say with absolute certainty that some of the most valuable lessons and experiences I have had here were because of my involvement in student media.
Beyond the practical application of skills that translate into the workplace — creative collaboration, personnel management, deadline consciousness and interpersonal skills — the ability to be a part of student media has helped me achieve life-long dreams.
A few years ago, the radio station took a field trip to tour the Adult Swim offices. The entire reason I came to SCAD was because of its proximity to Turner Broadcasting and my desire to work at Adult Swim. Within the first year or so of coming here, I was able to tour the place that I have dreamed of working at since I was 14 years old.
After shifting to a position at the The Connector and SCAN, I appeared live on adultswim.com to interview the hosts of “The Williams Street Swap Shop” — Zachary White and Matthew Hutchinson — and received a more personalized tour of the offices.
Additionally, I parlayed my status as a student journalist to conduct a phone interview with co-creator and host of “Bloodfeast” — Maxime Simonet — also on adultswim.com’s live-streaming platform. These are just a couple of opportunities I sought out on my own. Others were offered to me simply because of my continued involvement with The Connector and SCAN and choosing to write about things I really enjoyed.
Last year, I wrote about the Baltimore, Md. art collective Wham City Comedy and their live performance in New York. The article lead to an interview with one of the members of the collective — Ben O’Brien — which was another dream come true.
Apart from that, I provided press coverage for all three days of the Shaky Beats Festival in 2017 and interviewed the cast of Ash vs. Evil Dead at aTVfest in 2018 — including the legendary Bruce Campbell.
All of these experiences were invaluable to my development as a journalist and an artist, but they were also some of the highlights of my life as a whole. I never would have been able to do any of this without student media.
Not only will participating in student media grow your skill sets and prepare you for the working world, it is also a fun and rewarding experience. The staff here — especially our supervisor, Jessica Clary — are some of the most talented and helpful people I have ever had the pleasure of working with.
If you want to become a better artist, diversify your skill set and have a good time while doing it, I highly recommend getting involved before you miss out on the opportunity. If you are not involved with student media here at SCAD, then you are not getting everything you can out of your degree.
