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A Chance of A Lifetime
NERVES. N-E-R-V-E-S. That single word explained how I felt on September 22, 2012. No, it wasn’t because I had an important test or a big project due; it was for something that has become one of the highlights of my college career: Learning if the Student Achievement Award me and my group mates were nominated for was coming home with us.
As college students we all have been hit with group projects and as a Communication and Media Arts major, I know this all too well. When receiving our group audio/visual project from Karen Thomas in our Senior Seminar class, I thought this would go like any other project: do the work, turn it in, and receive your grade later on. Well my prediction was extremely wrong since I found myself only a few months later, waiting with my group members and another group from my Senior Seminar class to hear if our goal of winning was achieved.
Through this class we were given the opportunity, and the first to be offered this, to place our audio/visual projects in a college production entry held by the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences or NATAS, that give colleges and universities in its region a chance to display their work and eventually, if nominated, a Student Achievement Award. Not only did my group members and I want to enter our piece, “Neumann University: Uniquely Personal,” but we wanted to win. Not just so we can say we did, but to give the Communications department here some type of recognition that we are capable of what Temple and other big, well-known Communications departments can do.
On September 22, among all the known television channels like CBS, FOX, NBC 10, Comcast Sportsnet, and even more well known television anchors and sports announcers like, Marc Zumoff, Chris May and Jim Donovan, I got a chance to see all of the “big-wigs” of the industry that I would like to work in once I graduate. It had to be one of the most surreal moments of my life – to see everyone that I’ve watched on television only a few feet from me. Anxiety started to kick in as once one by one, the categories started to dwindle and give way to the College Production part of the ceremony. Being the second category announced was even more nerve-wrecking. All of the hard work put in by my group members and I was about to come to an end.
“And the winner is…”, and my heart stopped. I closed my eyes and heard my group members start to scream, “OMG, We won!” our hard work indeed paid off. Walking to the stage and hearing everyone congratulate us became the highlight of my last semester of college. We had done it.
Winning didn’t only mean we won, but it signified that I may be able to make in this crazy television industry and that I picked the right major. Looking back on everything from making our piece to winning the award, I wouldn’t change the long and stressful days it took for the group to make this production nor the months of waiting to hear if we won, it made receiving our Student Achievement Award even sweeter.
Neumann Spotlight–Pat Egan
By: Tom Dillard
Online Editor
Senior Communications student Pat Egan has endured the struggles and celebrated the joys of seeing the professional sports teams he loves.
Egan was born and raised in Northeast Philadelphia. His mother moved to Haverford Township right before his freshman year of high school. He then moved in with his father and attended Cardinal Dougherty High School in Olney section of Philadelphia. After high school, Egan moved in with his mother but ended up taking a year off from school and started at Neumann College in the spring of 2008.
Egan has a true love for sports, which can be attributed to his mother, Terry, who played backup goalie for her high school hockey team.
“She wasn’t very good,” stated Egan. “She raised me to be a Rangers fan. She named me after a Ranger, Pat Hickey, who is basically the Chase Utley of the Rangers. She just thought he was hot.”
After his parent’s divorce, Egan’s father, Alex, realized that he was never going to understand hockey and couldn’t transition his son to be a Flyers fan. This forced him to focus his son on becoming a fan of all of the rest of Philadelphia sports. Egan claims that he gets all his other fandom from his dad. His mom is all about New York, including the New York Yankees. Egan claims to really dislike New York teams in every other sport other than his beloved Broadway blueshirts.
“I can’t stand New York,” explained Egan. “I can’t stand going up there. I don’t even like the Rangers fans. It is what it is.”
Egan claims his fan hood of the Rangers makes him a better fan with other teams he loves.
“Being a Rangers fan has made me a better fan,” said Egan. “Growing up in Philadelphia, being a Rangers fan, that’s why I can’t stand bandwagon hoppers.”
He will always remember one period of time in second grade forever. The Rangers were playing the Flyers in the Eastern Conference Finals and getting destroyed. He would go home crying everyday because all of his classmates made fun of him. He simply dealt with it.
“I think it made me a stronger fan,” said Egan. “It makes you less likely to change allegiances. If you can go through that, you can deal with almost anything as a fan.”
In addition to his huge fanhood, Egan loves meaningless facts and random stats. When he gets curious, he looks things up.
“You could ask me what I learned last sememster and I probably couldn’t tell you,” stated Egan. “If you ask me random stuff about the United Football League, I’ll know a decent amount to hold a conversation. It’s not like I go home and study this stuff. I’m not ‘rainman’.”
Pat Egan has remained true to the professional sports teams he loves. He has been with them through thick-and-thin to live the life of a true fan!