From planning to writing stories to publishing the content, the goal of most media professionals is to submit their work to competitions. That wasn’t the case for Wayne State College student Becca Arkfeld when she created an award-winning PSA just to get an assignment done.
Arkfeld began her career at WSC with a major in business. At first, she had considered dropping out because she thought college just wasn’t her thing. Arkfeld didn’t expect her views on college to drastically change after taking language classes with Mike White. With that boost of motivation, Arkfeld realized she wanted to do something creative and out of the ordinary. She was passionate about graphic design and was even on her high school’s yearbook team, where she enjoyed designing layouts and working on the book’s vision. Arkfeld decided it was time to change her coursework and changed her major to electronic media. Even with this change, it wasn’t all rosy, she was overwhelmed and felt like she still didn’t like the major in its entirety. Arkfeld ended up sticking with the major because she found parts that really interested her. She loved being able to create something of her own and not having to take on one role after another. She could go out and be creative.
In her third year of college, Arkfeld met Pat Janssen, a lecturer who took over the television program from Mike White, who had his hands full with the film program. Janssen helped Arkfeld become more involved in television by encouraging her to create high-quality, well-thought-out content. Eventually, she began to fall in love with the television side of everything. Getting into television helped her expand her horizons considerably, which in turn led her to start radio the following semester.
“I felt lost until third year,” Arkfeld said. “Third year of college is when I really figured out what I wanted to do. Before that, I was like a lost little soul trying to find my way around the humanities building and figure out what department I fit into because I knew I wanted to do something in the humanities.”
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During her penultimate year, Arkfeld created a public service announcement, or PSA, for television that has since won two major awards. She wrote this PSA about the heat waves in the dorms and how severe the conditions were for students living in dorm rooms without air conditioning. The PSA won a Golden Leaf Award and a Nebraska Broadcasting Association Award. The Nebraska Broadcasting Association Award was shared between all of the schools in Nebraska, including the universities of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha, and Kearney, all of which have larger campuses compared to WSC. For Arkfeld, this award meant a lot since she did not have the resources of the other schools. Arkfeld really showed what it means when teachers say to work with what you have.
When Arkfeld was asked how she felt when her name was called at the Nebraska Broadcasting awards ceremony, she had a big smile on her face and said that more than anything, she was impressed by the star’s fame.
“I did a lot of ACT prep in high school,” Arkfeld said. “John Baylor was the ACT prepper my entire junior high years, and he was the emcee that night. So when I saw John Baylor look at me and say my name, I was more impressed by John Baylor than I was by the fact that I had won the award.”
Many students don’t know that “The Heatwave Package” was Becca’s very first PSA and her first job related to television news. Arkfeld had nothing but good things to say about Janssen. “He was a really great teacher and gave them a couple of weeks to figure everything out 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 everything perfect. Throughout the process, there were definitely moments where she got annoyed at how often Janssen would send her back to correct the little things.
“I wanted to show him that I was willing to learn and accept criticism,” Arkfeld said. “Pat had me change that news package, I think, six or seven times.”
Arkfeld will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in electronic media in December 2024. You can listen to her on US92 and 94 Rock, where she turned an internship into a professional career.
“All I can say is listen to your professors as often as they make you criticize and change things,” Arkfeld said. “Make those changes because you could win a national award.”
