Tech TV Production Students Win PSA Contest and Meet with Pros

Three TV Production and Digital Film students from the Tech Center won the United Way’s Public Service Announcement Competition Challenge, Voices for 2-1-1.  They were visited by a panel of media professionals who judged the competition and spoke about their careers and fielded questions this week on the campus of Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES.

 United Way's 2-1-1 is a free, confidential, multilingual helpline that provides millions of people each year with health and human services information, referrals, crisis support and disaster recovery information. Tech students Raechel Peterson from Brewster placed first; Kevin Aruilio from North Salem placed second; and Mahopac’s Katie Lawrence placed third in the competition. The students each created a 60-second public service announcement video for the 2-1-1 service.

 “It was really hard making the PSA at first,” said Raechel Peterson. “But once I got the idea, it just took off.”

 Stacey Cohen, CEO and president of Co-Communications, who sat on the media panel, was impressed with the level of professionalism in the students’ PSAs. “I so enjoyed watching them,” she said.

Other media professionals who made up the panel were radio personality Kacey Morabito, from Mike and Kacey in the Morning on WHUD; Ernie Garcia, staff writer for the Journal News; Diana Costello, communications specialist for the Office of the Westchester County Executive; and Lanning Taliaferro, an associate regional editor with Patch.com. United Way’s senior vice president of marketing Shannon Cobb hosted the event.

Students learned about the importance of internships: “I studied communications in college and got an internship at WHUD and never left,” said Morabito. And they learned about the nitty-gritty of the industry: “Take a video class,” said Taliaferro. “Today in this industry, everyone needs to know how to take photos.”

Costello spoke of the importance of diversifying. “You can’t just be a graphic designer today,” without having other communications skills, she said. And she warned of the dangers of multitasking: “Everyone does it in this generation,” she said, “you have to, but you also have to make sure to focus on one thing at a time so that you don’t make mistakes. Always re-read what you’ve written before pressing send.”

The students from all of the communications programs at Tech in attendance were encouraged by the panelists’ knowledge and dedication to their careers.

“They gave us so much information, and they were so humble,” said Katie.

“They were really wonderful!” said Raechel, who will study journalism and marketing at Washington State University in the fall.

“Out of the hundreds of submissions we got for the competition, yours were by far the best,” Cobb told the students. “You have a wonderful program here at The Tech Center.”