With the shift in today’s economy, landing a career-based job right after graduation is a huge concern for many college students. However, for the fortunate ones who find work after graduating from Old Westbury, there seems to be a common factor that helped them attain this goal.
For Old Westbury alumni Ed Easton, Joslyn J. Jamieson, and Shaun Morash putting in long hours of work through on and off campus internships has put these ambitious gentlemen where they want to be. All three former students majored in media and communications and got their start at the college’s very own radio station: Old Westbury Web Radio.
Ed Easton, 24 completed four different internships before graduating in May 2009. Some of his internship placements included XM Satellite Radio, 1010 WINS Radio, andSports Net New York Television. Through these different internships he expanded his experience within the field of media, and gained essential skills in everything from reporting to engineering and producing. “I learned to not be content with only pursuing one option in the field and to be diverse in my craft,” he said. He currently works for CBS Radio as a writer/ producer of several station websites. He writes for Fresh 102.7, WCBS-FM 101.1, CBS New York, 92.3 NOW, hosts his own radio show on 92.3 K- Rock HD2, and is the sports business writer for NV Magazine. For someone who graduated less than a year ago Ed is doing very well and urges Old Westbury students to remain motivated and humble. “It is very important to intern because of the wealth of knowledge that is gained shadowing professionals; it gives a more realistic view of the career that can’t be absorbed from any textbook,” he said.
Joslyn J. Jamieson 24, graduated from Old Westbury in the spring semester of 2010, with two internships under his belt. Joslyn also known as Josh, first interned at the school’s radio station OWWR, where he began his own news radio show. For his second internship, Josh worked at WABC-TV as an assignment editor, which resulted in a job offer by the end of the semester. “I feel that internships are absolutely necessary for students to land jobs in their perspective careers,” he said.From his last internship, he was hired as a production assistant for Eyewitness News Channel 7, and editor/ writer at the CBS broadcast center in NYC. As a production assistant for Eyewitness News, he is responsible for keeping track of news scripts and finding video clips in the WABC-TV archive for the upcoming news day. Under CBS Josh is also employed by a company named Network News Service, where he edits videos and writes scripts that are read by anchors all across the country. “The job market right now is vicious especially in the media field, companies just want to cut jobs so students must make themselves indispensable or as close to it as possible,” he added..
Unlike the other, Shaun Morash 23, graduated from Old Westbury this past December. Upon graduating he managed to complete two different internships, both during the same semester. One of the internships was on campus at OWWR and the other one was at WFAN Sports Radio 66, owned by CBS Radio. “My experience at OWWR helped propel my success in my experience at WFAN; and everything I learned at OWWR helped me succeed at WFAN,” he said. After completing the internship and graduating, he was one of the only two interns who were asked to stay. He was hired as a tape and board opp for WFAN. This position requires him to watch sports and cut out audio to be used for sports updates on the radio. He is also responsible for controlling or engineering the radio shows live on the air, which was exactly what he trained for during the time he was interning. “I was told after I started interning at WFAN that they usually only hire their past interns, and I assume this is the case for many big time radio stations,” he said.
From talking to all three alumni, it became obvious that their stories and ideas were all very similar to each other, which probably explains why they managed to all excel at such a tough time. These three former students helped to prove that working hard through internships is usually the best way to land a career-based job; but it also raised the question of whether or not this theory would apply to students outside of the field of media? It truly seems as if getting the internship experience is more crucial to media majors, but this idea can generally apply to all college students. Internships offer the real world experience that most undergraduate programs lack.