Q: Your name?
A: Sam Oldenburg

Q: At what school do you work?
A: Western Kentucky University

Q: What is your role?
A: Talisman and Cherry Creative Adviser

Q: How long have you been in student media?
A: Five years as an adviser and four years as a student

Q: What are you most excited to work on this year at your student media organization?
A: Embracing change with student leaders who weren’t even on staff when the pandemic started and working with them to figure out what our media looks like going forward.

Q: What’s a fun fact about you?
A: While I was in high school I worked as a balloon artist performing under the name Zippy the Clown.

Q: What’s something in student media you wish you could learn more about?
A: Any non-traditional events (outside of housing fairs or best of events) student media groups are holding to generate revenue

Q: What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited, and if you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
A: Whatever national park I last camped in is my favorite place, so right now that’s the Great Smoky Mountains. I would love to travel to France and viside Claude Monet’s gardens.

Have a question for Sam? Reach out at samual.oldenburg@wku.edu.

Q: Your name?
A: Christopher Richert

Q: At what school do you work?
A: Michigan State University

Q: What is your role?
A: General Manager of State News Media Group

Q: How long have you been in student media?
A: 24 years

Q: What are you most excited to work on this year at your student media organization?
A: To work with the students to explore new ways to innovate and grow our audience

Q: What’s a fun fact about you?
A: I was a producer for the Jerry Springer show and was a lead pyrotechnician for the Transformers movies filmed in Chicago.

Q: What’s something in student media you wish you could learn more about?
A: What other media independent groups are doing to continue financial sustainability

Q: What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited, and if you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
A: Costa Rica was my favorite place so far. I would love to go to Egypt.

Q: Your name?
A: Nathan Laursen

Q: At what school do you work?
A: Utah State University

Q: What is your role?
A: Director of Student Media

Q: How long have you been in student media?
A: 4 years as a student, 4 years as a vendor, 9 years as an adviser

Q: What are you most excited to work on this year at your student media organization?
A: Our media organization is growing and watching the individual departments of radio, news and our creative agency work together on projects is rewarding. We are excited to produce at least one multimedia project each month this year and continue fulfilling our mission statement.

Q: What’s a fun fact about you?
A: I’ve been hit by lightning, but did not receive any superpowers that have manifested.

Q: What’s something in student media you wish you could learn more about?
A: Programmatic advertising and Search Engine Optimization techniques are constantly changing, and I wish I had more time to learn about it and implement those techniques.

Q: What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited, and if you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
A: Visited: Hiking the Zion Narrow’s (entire 16-mile overnight from Chamberlain’s Ranch); If travel anywhere: Island hopping in the south pacific (Tuvalu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, etc) or the Moon or Antartica.

Q: Your name?
A: Julie Salter

Q: At what school do you work?
A: University of Alabama

Q: What is your role?
A: Assistant Director of Advertising

Q: How long have you been in student media?
A: 5 years

Q: What are you most excited to work on this year at your student media organization?
A: Student Life event partnerships

Q: What’s a fun fact about you?
A: I am from a small town in Tennessee just next to Jack Daniels.

Q: What’s something in student media you wish you could learn more about?
A: I am eager to always learn more about making our marketing and distribution team stronger.

Q: What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited, and if you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
A: Florence Italy — the food, the art, the wine, the gelato, the lovely people and the art … I would love another trip back but also a trip to London

Q: Your name?
A: Katherine Ross

Q: At what school do you work?
A: University of Pennsylvania

Q: What is your role?
A: Director of Sales and Marketing at The Daily Pennsylvanian

Q: How long have you been in student media?
A: 27 years

Q: What are you most excited to work on this year at your student media organization?
A: Developing our digital products including newsletters & our mobile app, DP+

Q: What’s a fun fact about you?
A: I’m originally from California

Q: What’s something in student media you wish you could learn more about?
A: I would like to become more well versed in social media!

Q: What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited, and if you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
A: Favorite place I have ever visited was the south of France. And, if I could travel anywhere it would be back to Australia. There was so much that I didn’t see the first time.