Yeager Media Center is a high definition studio in Yeager Hall on the campus of South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota. The studio is home to "On Call", a medical program that airs on South Dakota Public Broadcasting on Thursday nights. This production was one of the first programs I ever worked with on campus as an undergraduate. From there I was then integrated a bit more doing post production work with Lowell Haag, coordinator of YMC. With my experiences with On Call, I then became involved with The Jackrabbit Insider, a weekly television show dedicated to updating viewers on Jackrabbit Athletics. These two programs were produced in Pugsley hall prior to YMC. iGrow, an SDSU extension service, also utilizes the studio quite frequently.
As a broadcast journalism student with a lot of video experience, I was asked by Tyler Merriam and Ryan Sweeter and Lowell Haag if I would like to be a graduate assistant with Yeager and SDSU Athletics. After a few months of pondering the opportunity, I accepted in the summer of 2012 and have had a great run the last 15 months.
So what do I do? I primarily work over in Athletics, shooting video of all home athletic events. A big focus is on football, and both the men's and women's basketball teams, but I also shoot wrestling, volleyball, track, cross country, swimming and anything else that is needed. All the video that is shot is used for archive purposes and of course the Jackrabbit Insider. When I'm not there of course, I am a student so I have courses to take which is always a battle to stay on top of. Yeager Media Center also has production work to do as well. This past summer I was presented with a Mob Grazing project to work on, which emphasizes a new trend in agriculture where ranchers rotate their cattle on pastures for short, intensive time periods which has proven to be beneficial for the cattle and the land. This project is currently wrapping up. University Relations at SDSU also has a few projects for student hire(me) through Yeager Media Center as well.(see SDSU freshmen move-in video) iGrow and SDSU Extension services with crops and other agriculture is another frequent client.
So all of this work the last two years has me more than slightly involved with SDSU. I feel like I bleed blue and yellow. I almost don't want to leave after I'm planned to be done in May. I can't help but hope that a position is created for me at SDSU when I'm done.
Go Jackrabbits! Or as we like to say, "Go Big, Go Blue, Go Jacks!"
