During her freshman and sophomore years of college, Brittany Winfield was diving into biology textbooks and studying linguistics at the University of Vermont. With two years of college under her belt, Winfield made the bold move to transfer to East Stroudsburg University (ESU) in the fall of 2014. Winfield never thought that transferring universities meant changing her major, disc jockeying for an acclaimed radio station and being nominated for a national broadcasting award. Surprisingly, that\u2019s exactly what she did.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransferring schools was not easy but it did help reveal to me what I am meant to do,\u201d said Winfield.<\/p>\n
Winfield knew that she would be living independently during her time at ESU. Before even stepping foot on campus, she began applying to positions in the East Stroudsburg area. Within a couple of weeks, she heard back from the Office of University Relations.<\/p>\n
After acing her interview, Winfield was offered a part-time student position in university relations. She was responsible for answering phones and gathering information for ESU\u2019s public relations specialists. It was so satisfying that she began to notice her passion for biology fading.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke to our director about careers in this field,\u201d she said. \u201cShe suggested I look into ESU\u2019s communication studies department.\u201d <\/p>\n
Immediately after speaking to communication studies faculty, Winfield switched her major. Finally feeling fulfilled, she decided that she wanted to get involved in everything that the communications field had to offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was walking past the McGarry Communications Center and heard music one day,\u201d she said. \u201cI was immediately interested.\u201d<\/p>\n
That music turned out to be 90.3 WESS FM, the university\u2019s college radio station. Winfield spoke with their training director and started the process to become a disc jockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experience with WESS was amazing,\u201d said Winfield.<\/p>\n
Though Winfield\u2019s time at WESS was brief, she made sure her presence was known. It was only a short time into her disc jockeying career that an even bigger opportunity presented itself.
\n\u201cI was asked to be WESS\u2019s promotions director,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was insane because I was there for such a short amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
As promotional director, Winfield is responsible for creating and managing events that help enhance WESS\u2019s overall image.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time you see a WESS event, I am the one managing every logistical step behind it,\u201d said Winfield. \u201cA good event helps stabilize finances for the station.\u201d<\/p>\n
Satisfied with her major, extra-curricular activities and part-time job, it would seem that Winfield was having a meaningful college experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was feeling so happy about myself,\u201d she said. \u201cTransferring schools was incredibly hard, but I finally felt like everything was falling into place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winfield was doing homework in her apartment when she came across an email from WESS\u2019s adviser, Robert McKenzie, Ph.D., chair and professor of communication studies. The email chain described a national contest sponsored by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS).<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as I heard of the contest, I went online to see if I was eligible for any of the awards,\u201d said Winfield.<\/p>\n
The Intercollegiate Broadcasting System is a not-for-profit organization that serves national college radio, television and webcasting stations. Each year it holds an international contest that recognizes outstanding stations and the individuals who represent them. Winfield applied for the best promotional event and best live music broadcast award. The process wasn\u2019t easy. A letter of intent, media files and promotion information had to be sent to the IBS for consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple weeks ago I logged onto their website and saw that I was a finalist,\u201d she said. \u201cI graduate in the spring so this would be a great way to give back to WESS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winfield was not the only one looking to give back to the radio station. Brian Silva, a senior at ESU majoring in digital media technologies, is nominated for the Most Innovative Programming award. Silva has been a member at 90.3 WESS since 2012 and currently works as a programs director. Brian on Broadway, Silva\u2019s radio show, airs weekly and broadcasts popular New York Broadway cast recordings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are not many radio shows like mine,\u201d Silva said. \u201cIts uniqueness truly shines through and I\u2019m so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
IBS\u2019s national awards ceremony will be held on March 6-March 7 in New York City. The event will feature conferences before the awards presentations on March 7. Winners receive national recognition in the college broadcasting community as well as a trophy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two students are finalists for a national contest sponsored by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System. The Intercollegiate Broadcasting System is a not-for-profit organization that serves national college radio, television and webcasting stations. Each year it holds an international contest that recognizes outstanding stations and the individuals who represent them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,22,42,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-facebook","category-news-release","category-slider"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13729"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13739,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13729\/revisions\/13739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}