When Brittany Lauffer was young, her mother gave her the idea of pursuing a career in broadcast journalism. In high school, that notion turned into a career goal when she first stood behind the camera during a broadcast class.
“My teacher saw that I had a knack for shooting and editing video at the same time I realized that I was comfortable doing it, enjoyed it, and was good at it,” said Lauffer.
Now, almost four years after matriculating to Point Park’s School of Communication, Lauffer has not only left an indelible mark on the school’s broadcast program, but she is set to build a career in the industry she loves.
“I just want to report the hard, breaking news that people need to hear,” said Lauffer
Lauffer made the decision to attend Point Park during her senior year at Beaver Area High School. She knew that she wanted to pursue broadcasting, but originally had committed to attending West Virginia University due to family tradition. During her spring semester of her senior year, she began searching for different schools.
“I realized I was dreading college because I wasn’t going for the right reasons,” said Lauffer.
Her mother was the one who suggested she looked into Point Park. She didn’t know much about the school, but after an impressive campus tour and hearing about the vast amount of opportunities the school had to offer, she made the decision to begin at Point Park University during the fall of 2012. She is double majoring in broadcast production & programming and broadcast reporting, with a minor in public relations.
“I don’t regret my decision to switch schools one bit!” said Lauffer.
The first week of her freshman year, she got involved in the campus TV channel, U-View, something that she would grow with during all four years of college. During week one she was running a camera, and week two she made an on-camera appearance. After working with U-View for three semesters on shows such as “Daybreak” and “Point News,” she worked in marketing and promotions for the station for one semester. In the fall of 2014, she got promoted to the station manager.
“She is very smart and responsible, and was just the logical person to promote to that position,” said Robin Cecala, professor at Point Park and faculty advisor at U-View.
As the station manager, Lauffer wears many different hats. She is the main contact for recruiting new students, from freshman to transfer students. She even speaks to high school students looking to attend Point Park. She also takes the responsibility of getting people to cover different events on campus so they can be aired on U-View. She works with the public relations side of things, as well. She hosts the morning news show, “Daybreak,” alongside Blaine King, Point Park’s United Student Government president, as well as the news and sports director of U-View.
“Hosting ‘Daybreak’ with Brittany is a great experience and her great personality makes all of us enjoy working with her,” said King.
She essentially knows the ins and outs of U-View, and is expected to attend and oversee all of the shows and fill in whenever necessary. She is knowledgeable about all of the occurrences in the studio, from on-camera performance to everything behind the scenes.
“You kind of have to know how absolutely everything works to be a station manager, and Brittany definitely fits that role, making her extremely marketable for the future and a wonderful station manager,” said Cecala.
She also helps handle any discrepancies that may occur. As with any organization, students have personality conflicts, and she helps smooth these over. She deals with technical issues, as well. The most difficult situation she has dealt with while working on set with U-View was when a crew member had a medical emergency. She called the necessary medical workers, attempted to keep her advisor and professors in the loop despite their absence, and calmed down the students, all while attempting to keep her emotions in check.
“It was a very scary and eye-opening situation, but it was good preparation because I know I am going to see some awful things in the news world and have to have the ability to turn off my emotions,” said Lauffer.
Lauffer has made a strong effort to lead U-View toward growth since assuming her role as station manager. She has channeled a huge amount of energy into recruiting more students to be involved with U-View. Lauffer stresses the importance on getting involved as early as possible. She reaches out to new students to educate them about U-View and tries to make sure they continue their involvement with the station throughout their time in college. She attempts to help students get involved in parts of the station they are interested in, whether it be writing scripts, on-camera performance, working behind the scenes, or anything else. Not only this, but she does what she can to make sure it is a fun environment for everyone involved. Since assuming the role as station manager, she noted that she has to spend less time assembling a crew because of the willingness of the U-View students to learn as much as possible, which she feels is very rewarding.
“She is very personable and does everything she can to get students involved and make them feel included – we even hear that from the students themselves,” said Cecela.
Lauffer has such a strong love for U-View and wants other students to feel the same way by creating a positive experience for everyone involved in the station. Since working as the station manager, she has made an effort in bringing the U-View students together outside of a studio setting. Even in the studio, she tries to create a professional setting while still having fun at the same time.
“Brittany and I always take selfies with each other before we go on, but it takes us a good five minutes each time until we have the perfect one!” said King.
Lauffer’s hard work with U-View has definitely paid off according to the Broadcast Education Association (BEA). U-View was recently named the honorable mention winner of the BEA 2016 Signature Station Award. For this award, they were required to submit a video press kit and a written proposal outlining U-View’s accomplishments. Lauffer was a huge part of creating the video press kit, from writing the script, shooting, and doing the voiceover. The U-View team will get presented with a certificate for this accomplishment at the Student Media Advisor division meeting, scheduled to take place on April 17, 2016.
“I definitely feel as though I’ve landed so many great internship opportunities because of my involvement with U-View,” said Lauffer.
Her first internship was with Maryn Graves Productions from March to November 2014, although she still works closely with the company. She began as a second-shooter for video weddings, as well as working with marketing and promotions for the company. As her internship continued, they instilled her with skills in wedding photography and photography editing in Adobe Lightroom. Her greatest obstacle with the internship was learning how to use so much new equipment.
“Brittany started out having never used a DSLR camera, not knowing how to manually focus, or proper composition, but has since mastered all of these techniques and many others,” said Maryn Graves, owner of the company.
Lauffer feels she learned an immeasurable amount of information from Graves during her time working for the company, from videography to photography editing to marketing and business skills. Graves has nothing but positive things to say about working with Lauffer for the past three years.
“Brittany is the sort of individual you want to know both professionally and personally; she is a one-of-a-kind and rare find, and anyone would be lucky to bring her on as their future employee,” said Graves.
Lauffer’s second internship was with KDKA. She worked primarily with news, spending time with photographers or reporters to cover stories, sometimes several per day. She often wrote packages for the standups she shot. The most rewarding experience throughout this internship was when she worked with “Pittsburgh Today Live” covering the Braddock Free Store, which collaborates with the 412 Food Rescue and Brazen Kitchen. Lauffer wrote the package for this story, and felt very connected to it because it was benefiting a charitable cause.
“I was treated as an employee there and not an intern, and this amazing summer only affirmed what I wanted to do as a career,” said Lauffer.
After graduation this spring, Lauffer strives to become a multimedia journalist in the short-term, but the ultimate goal is to become a multimedia journalist reporter or news anchor. She wants to find a city she can call home, Pittsburgh or elsewhere, working in the field she has shown passion for since high school.
“I ultimately just want to report important news to the community by researching, talking to people, and informing people,” said Lauffer.
Outside of her busy schedule working with U-View, Maryn Graves Productions, and completing her last semester at Point Park, Lauffer enjoys spending time with her boyfriend, friends, and her two kittens. She is a waitress and bartender in Sewickley, and enjoys doing hot yoga in her free time.
Lauffer offered advice to up and coming broadcasting students, first being to take advantage of the wonderful professors and mentors available throughout Point Park.
“My professors have helped me each step of the way and I cannot thank them enough,” said Lauffer.
However, her biggest piece of advice that she stressed multiple times was the importance of involvement. Her passion for her career led her to two incredible internships, as well as a leadership position with U-View.
“I don’t regret giving up every Tuesday and Thursday night of my college career to spend in the U-View studio – it was all worth it!” said Lauffer.