Bishop Noll alum, Justyna Syska ’07, a current producer at ABC 7 Chicago, visited Bishop Noll’s Mass Media class on Monday, Oct.28 to discuss her role as a television producer and the path she took from a high school journalist to a radio producer and television producer. 

Syska talked about her experience at Bishop Noll and how her journalism class inspired her decision to pursue a major in communications. 

“When I attended Bishop Noll we only had newspaper and yearbook, but I knew I wanted to go into the field. What impacted me was my newspaper teacher’s advice: Come early and stay late, which can be applied to anything, but was really useful in my field when landing internships and jobs,” she explained. 

Syska studied communications at Purdue Calumet and began seeking out internships in Chicago before landing her first production jobs at Chicago’s two country radio stations: US 99 and Big 95… She gave the class an insight into the communication field and explained the process of internships and landing a job. 

Syska emphasized the importance of saving work and creating a reel, a video montage of segments and videos showcasing your work. She showed the class showcased her reel form ABC Chicago. 

She described her experience at ABC Chicago.

 “For ABC, my favorite thing is being able to tell other people’s stories and I get the opportunity to show stories from Northwest Indiana,” she said.

Junior Bethany Askew described the experience and its helpfulness for her future.

“I felt that I got a lot of really good insight on how to better prepare myself in college and for possible internships that may come up. She gave good advice on how to get started and prepare in high school such as preparing a reel of all your best work to display and show others your progression and skills,” Askew said. 

The class was able to ask questions and showcase their work along with their  filming studio. Syska was impressed by the students and class. 

“I think it’s awesome you have this class! It’s a great way to figure out what you like and get exposed to the equipment, while starting to get experience before college and before your career,” she said. 

Bishop Noll’s Mass Media class will visit Justyna and tour the ABC Chicago studios on Dec. 4, 2019.