From the beginning processes of planning, to putting together stories and publishing the content, the goal for most media professionals is to submit their work for contests. That was not the case for Wayne State College’s student, Becca Arkfeld, when she made an award-winning PSA with the intention of just completing an assignment.
Arkfeld began her journey at WSC as a business management major. At first, she had contemplated dropping out because she thought that college just wasn’t her thing, Arkfeld wasn’t expecting that after speech class with Mike White that her views on college would change drastically. With that push of motivation, Arkfeld realized that she wanted to do something creative and out of the ordinary. She was passionate about graphic design and was even on the yearbook team at her high school, where she loved to design layouts and work on the vision of the book. Arkfeld decided it was time to change things up in her coursework and made the change in her major to electronic media. Even with this change it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine, she was overwhelmed feeling as if she still didn’t enjoy the major in its entirety. Arkfeld ended up sticking to the major as she found parts that really struck her interest. She loved having the ability to create something that was her own, and she didn’t have to follow roles one by one. She could go off and be creative.
Entering her junior year, Arkfeld met Pat Janssen, a faculty member who took over the television program from Mike White, whose hands were full with the film program. Janssen helped Arkfeld get more into television by encouraging her to make content that was high quality and well thought out. She eventually started to fall in love with the television side of everything. Entering television helped her expand her horizons significantly, which in turn drove her to begin radio the following semester.
“Up until junior year, I felt lost.” Arkfeld said. “It was my junior year of college that I really figured out what I wanted to do, before then I was just like a lost little soul trying to find my way through the humanities building of what department do I fit in because I knew I wanted to do something within humanities.”
In her junior year, Arkfeld created a public service announcement, or PSA, for television that now has two major awards. She wrote this PSA about the heatwaves in the dorms, and how serious the conditions were for students living in with dorm rooms that had no air conditioning. The PSA has won a Golden Leaf award and a Nebraska Broadcasting Association award. The Nebraska Broadcasting Association award was between every school in Nebraska which includes the Universities of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha, and Kearney, which are all larger campuses compared to WSC. For Arkfeld, to win this award meant a lot to her seeing as she didn’t have the resources the other schools had. Arkfeld truly showed what it means when teachers say work with what you have.
When Arkfeld was asked how she felt when she heard her name called at the Nebraska Broadcasting award ceremony, she had a big smile on her face and said that she was more starstruck than anything.
“I did ACT prep a lot in high school,” Arkfeld said. “John Baylor was the ACT prep man for all of my junior high days, and he was the MC that night. So, when I saw John Baylor look at me and say my name, I was just more starstruck about John Baylor then winning the award.”
A lot of students don’t know that “The Heatwave Package” was Becca’s first ever PSA and her first time doing anything related to TV news. Arkfeld had nothing but great things to say about Janssen. “He was a really great instructor and gave them a few weeks to get a hold of everything before throwing them to the wolves.” She really wanted to impress Janssen since it was his first year, so she took a lot of notes and tried to make it perfect. There were definitely times throughout the whole process that she got upset with how many times Janssen sent her back to fix the small things.
“I wanted to show him that I was willing to learn and take critiques,” Arkfeld said. “Pat made me change that news package I think six or seven times.”
Arkfeld will be graduating in December 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in electronic media. You can to listen to her on US92 and 94 Rock where she turned an internship into a professional career.
“All I have to say is listen to your professors, as many times as they make you critique things and change things,” Arkfeld said. “Make those changes because you could win a statewide award.”
