After long hours spent news and broadcasting, Elisapeta Santoro, Class of 2012 is keeping herself busy broadcasting news for the Rochester Institute of Technology. Previously on Amplifier as the online editor, she found her niche for broadcast news in college.
Because of high school journalism, Santoro feels that the doors of many clubs and extracurricular activities have been opened for her around the college campus. Informed about the radio WITR (pronounced Witter), by her resident adviser, she was drawn in right away. She began as a Disk Jockey on Thursday nights, and has become familiar with working at the station and building relationships with the staff.
After working for the radio for the second quarter, she applied for the position of the business manager. With her Amplifier background, she was hoping to get more involved at the station, so she applied. She mentioned being on the newspaper staff in high school, which is why they recruited her for the news director job.
“When I was offered the position of news director, I felt it was to my advantage because of my Amplifier background,” Santoro said.
Introducing a news broadcast called “People’s Power,” Santoro interviews groups from around the campus on pressing topics going on in the community. She works with campus groups such as the International Socialist Organization, Outspoken and the Center for Women and Gender.
“”There was no news segment to begin with. It was a completely new creation,” Santoro said. “It was truly trial and error. When I began to do newscasts with clubs from the college it began to be more interesting because they brought in their own topics they wanted to talk about.”
Fully committed to her responsibilities as a newscaster, Santoro spends a great amount of time in the office. Broadcasting every sunday at 12 p.m., Santoro spends the weekdays editing and cutting recordings and writing a script for the narrator. Modeling the broadcast after National Public Radio, Santoro looks to expand her broadcast beyond the three clubs and begin to include other active groups around the campus.
“This job is a huge commitment, but seeing my work ethic, hopefully I will be rewarded next year,” Santoro said.
Santoro was nominated for four executive board positions. Hopeful to become a bigger part of the company, she chose to run for Programming Director. Santoro was elected to that position recently.
“I was really excited when given this opportunity,” Santoro said. “It was a big deal to get nominated and have a successful run. When we had our meeting and I recieved a lot of support, which was nice.”
While keeping busy with WITR, Santoro still manages to stay diligent in her studies. She is working towards becoming a mechanical engineer and aspires to accomplish minor degrees in math and music or design.
Santoro feels that she has made a great transition into college. She has accepted challenges with grace and is working hard to accomplish her responsibilities. Santoro was sure to give pieces of advice to her former West Linn classmates.
“It is so important to get involved in high school. The things you do will transfer into your activities and class work in college,” Santoro said.