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A skeptical Business Management, Economics major, Ariel half-heartedly
took a position at SCTV as the Events! Team Coordinator through
the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Internship Program. By the
age of 21, Ariel already had plenty of jobs and internships that
provided him experience in a wide variety of fields ranging from
government, to retail, to food service, to residential education,
to manual labor, and he had established himself as a student leader
as a Resident Assistant at Porter College. When applying for a CUIP
position in the winter of 2006, Ariel had a strong desire to apply
some of his Business Management classroom education into a position
where he could obtain some professional level experience and was
very interested in the Business Manager position at KZSC the campus
radio station. Needless to say, he was disappointed when he learned
that he was not accepted to hold this position. However, Ariel stuck
by his personal philosophy of taking advantage of all of the opportunities
one is given, and decided that he would give a majority of his senior
year to the position in which he was accepted at SCTV, the flourishing
campus closed-circuit television station.
The position, largely created by Daniel Masaoka, the previous year’s
CUIP intern, consisted of organizing teams of students to film campus
events. This was an attempt to utilize the great media resource
that SCTV was which existed for students on campus. SCTV was not
only in need of more content for the station, but also wanted to
have more of an impact on student life by bringing a sense of community
across the campus and provide a video outlet for the diverse voices
of UCSC’s student body. Ariel desired to push SCTV toward
legitimacy by adding live broadcast to its capabilities. This would
enhance the power of the station by airing happenings when they
were most relevant and also hoped to create a larger following.
Unfortunately, SCTV was not able to broadcast live during the academic
year, but the path was laid, and the equipment was purchased that
will allow SCTV to feature set scheduling as well as live broadcast
by fall 2007.
As the Events! Team Coordinator, Ariel was forced to learn to perform
the many facets of the job, which challenged him at new levels.
He had leadership experience previously, but at SCTV he needed to
refine his skills and eventually become a capable leader at a very
dynamic position. Business concepts, technical, organization, communication,
improvisation, and teaching skills all tested Ariel’s abilities.
During the year, the SCTV Events! Team was able to provide coverage
to 37 different events that included more than 15 different student
organizations and was able to raise over $2400 for SCTV’s
operating budget. The most enjoyable part for Ariel was playing
such an active role in the development of an up an coming organization
with a great future. Being a part of that progression and putting
student ideas together gave their reward in the tranquility that
comes with knowing that all the hard work put into the year will
be the building blocks of a very successful organization in the
near future.
Ariel ended up acquiring much of the experience he really sought
as a business manager, but in addition was opened up to the world
of student media which allowed him to use more of his creative side.
The class associated with his internship provided Ariel with a network
to other student leaders around campus which helped him not only
in knowing of campus events, but they also shared ideas with him
on how best to manage a crew. The series of guest speakers allowed
interns grasp the university from a top down perspective which helped
Ariel more thoroughly conceive SCTV’s involvement and even
confirm the need for a greater presence of television media on campus.
The summer following his graduation from UCSC, Ariel will be interning
at Deloitte in Sacramento as a staff Audit Associate. He plans to
pursue life in the accounting industry as long as tolerable, but
will leave at a heartbeat for a job in the media or entertainment
industries.
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