Horizons Fall 2013

t he student is helping the NSU professor with all the elementals, teaching her what she needs to know for her future task. The student, a junior who is majoring in exercise and sport science, is patient, knowing the reward will be worth it. Welcome to another day at one of NSU’s busy media centers. On this day, assistant radio direc- tor Tiffany Simmons is instructing Debra Nixon, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, about doing a radio show. Called In the Real , the pro- gram, which features the family therapy expert giving advice and taking calls from students, airs on NSU’s Radio X. Elsewhere on NSU’s main campus, as classes are in full swing, there is plenty of activity. A home- coming edition of The Current , NSU’s student newspaper, is being published. The campus TV station SUTV (Sharks United Television) is broadcasting closed-circuit on Channel 96 to the main NSU campus in Davie and is streamed online to the regional campuses from Jacksonville to Miami. At Radio X studios, programs are aired on FM 88.5, which NSU shares with Piper High School. NSU programs the hours from 6:00 p.m. to midnight daily. Like print and TV, the radio operation also has an online presence. To accomplish all this requires a squadron of people, 53 in all, both staff members and vol- unteers. Coordinating this family is Michelle Manley, M.S., director of Student Media, who is trained in counseling and therapy. But along her intended path at NSU, she took a detour. In 2002, she got a job at the radio station. “I was studying for an undergraduate degree in legal studies, but I fell in love with radio,” said Manley, who holds a master’s degree in conflict analysis and resolution from NSU. “It was exciting and different—no day was the same.” Manley is a vibrant and personable coach who “pushes everyone to make things better,” said Keren Moros, who has done two stints at The Current . NSU’s media programs attract a variety of students. For some, this is an extension of their communications studies. Others consider the experience beneficial to their future career paths. Wherever these students are headed in their careers, says Manley, “having a multimedia com- ponent on their resume will make them stand out in this tech-heavy society.’’ Moros, copy editor at The Current , values her media experience at NSU. “Since I want to write for a living, the media experience helps me constantly examine how I’m writing, the words I’m using, and the clarity with which I write,” said Moros, who is in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences’ M.A. in Writing program, which covers a broad spectrum of the trade: travel writing, nature writing, screenwriting, and even how to teach writing. Such training, of course, could aid anyone who has to put a pen to paper for a living, from writing law briefs to doctoral theses. The commu- nications aspect prepares students for a variety of careers beyond journalism—education, public relations, marketing, and law. Academics and media are combined in a very specific way in a program that Manley began last year with Megan Fitzgerald, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences. A multimedia conference brings together students from the media program, Above: Alex Gruber, left, a communications studies senior, and Gianpaola Stasi, a sopho- more biology major, interview a student for an upcoming segment for SUTV. Opposite page: Tiffany Simmons (right), a junior, assists Debra Nixon, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, on the advice show In The Real , which airs on NSU’s Radio X. 7 HORIZONS