In tough economic times, university students may worry about the value of their undergraduate degrees in the “real world,” but graduates of West Liberty University’s communications program credit their WLU education for the success they’ve found in their chosen field.
“West Liberty definitely prepared me for what I’m doing,” Jason Bernardi said. A 2003 graduate, he works as a camera assistant alongside Carl Merenda ’02, director of photography for the Discovery Channel’s “Swamp Brothers” series. The WLU alumni previously worked together on the network’s “Pitchmen” program.
While at WLU, Bernardi followed the advice of Associate Professor Christian H. Lee. “Professor Lee told us to use all of our available resources,” he said, “and I take that with me everywhere I go.” What that means in practice, he explained, is taking advantage of every opportunity to learn and gain experience in the broadcasting field, including working at the campus radio and television stations. He also credited William M. Baronak, now dean of the College of Arts and Communication, for helping him get a summer internship at a Pittsburgh television station.
“My advice to students is to take advantage of every internship you possibly can. You gain so much experience and knowledge from actually doing the work,” he said.
After graduation, Bernardi worked at a couple of local television stations before moving to Florida and embarking on a “stringer” or free-lance photography career with his college friend. Merenda and his wife already had moved to the Orlando area after several years in television news. The alums were able to make contacts through their free-lance work with other professionals in the reality TV and documentary field and eventually were retained to photograph the Discovery Channel shows.
Merenda explained that he had considered attending a much larger university but discovered that WLU offered a better broadcasting degree program, with better facilities and equipment, than the other school. The WLU faculty also proved to be top notch. “Chris Lee was extremely knowledgeable. You just weren’t getting out of his classes unless you learned. I appreciated being able to have a one-on-one relationship with my professors. I was able to talk to them, even to call them at home if I needed to.”
He said, “Work experience is valuable, but you need a solid core of education, and I got that at West Liberty.”
Bernardi echoed the sentiment. “It may sound like a cliche, but at West Liberty I really didn’t feel like a number.” He added that he’s almost jealous that current students get to study in the new Media Arts Center at WLU, opened in 2006. “I was in awe of the facility. It’s so much nicer than what we had.”
The $3.5 million Media Arts Center is a state-of-the-art facility with television production technological capabilities that rival and often exceed those of professional studios throughout the region. Students have hands-on opportunities to learn all aspects of radio and television production, digital audio recording, animation and web design. West Liberty television (WLTV-14) reaches 100,000 cable customers in the region with a significant amount of student-produced original programming, while the student-run campus radio station (WGLZ FM 91.5) broadcasts music and sporting events.
“The education I got at West Liberty was phenomenal in preparing me for this career,” Merenda said. “I couldn’t imagine going anywhere else.”