How getting involved at Iona influenced my future

I cannot believe I’m writing my last piece for The Ionian. It has been a great run during my time at Iona.

I started my freshman year as someone who wasn’t sure how to get involved or what to get involved in. I then decided I wanted to be a part of three media organizations – The Ionian, ICTV and WICR.

It was the best decision I have ever made. I have even gone on to serve on the e-boards of two of them. I started as vice president of Communications for ICTV my sophomore year, vice president for ICTV my junior year and then president my senior year. At The Ionian, I was advertising manager for the past two years. During my time here I have enjoyed covering different campus events, reporting on different stories and interviewing many people.

Having a show on WICR was a great experience as well. I hosted “Today with Matt and Dave” with fellow senior David Horvath every week for several semesters. Our final show is this Friday. We covered a wide variety of topics – news, politics and sports as well as the Billboard Top 10 songs of the week and the weekly box office report. The third part of the show was when I had to guess the #1 song of last year and I would almost never get it right. We also had several guests on our show, including Dr. Jeanne Zaino of the Political Science department, Professor Nadine Cosby of the Mass Communications department and several students.

I want to thank all three organizations for giving me these opportunities and those who pushed me to get involved in them.

I have also had the privilege and the opportunity to serve as a Gael Guide with the Admissions Office. I have given tours since freshman year to prospective students and their families. I worked with an incredible team all four years. My goal as a Gael Guide was to make a difference for people looking at Iona and give it my best shot in selling the school. I feel that I have achieved my goal. I also was able to serve as a mentor for a few students that were interested in becoming Gael Guides.

My senior year I had the opportunity to intern at Fox News through the College Associate Program. I will be forever grateful for this. This fall I was in the Editing Department, while this past semester I worked on “Your World with Neil Cavuto.” I have learned a lot of new things and I thank all the people at Fox for the opportunities.

What’s next? I am beginning my job search at different media companies. I hope to secure a job working on air or doing behind-the-scenes production work in Manhattan.

If I did not come to Iona I don’t think any of this would be possible. The reason I chose Iona was for the small class sizes, the tight-knit community and the personal attention that you get from the professors.

That said, the most important reason for me was the people on campus. Everyone was always so kind and welcoming and it was easy to get to know people. I thank everyone who made my experience a great one and one to remember. I will always feel blessed and cherished to be able to attend and continue to be a part of this great school.

To contact The Ionian’s Matthew Ricker, email him at [email protected].