Adam Reinhart is a senior WIUX member who will be graduating this Saturday. Instead of his usual NHL column, he decided to write a farewell to IU.
All good things must come to an end. This Saturday, that will hold true for me, as I will graduate from Indiana University after three and a half years at this great campus and great college town.
I came here in 2010 after graduating from two-year Vincennes University, where I also took part in broadcasting. Although I already had an associate’s degree, I decided that a two-year education was not enough, and like a few fellow VU classmates, decided to continue my college career at a four-year school and pursue a Bachelor’s degree.
I enrolled into the School of Journalism and was quickly accepted. Since then, I have had the pleasure to meet and work with plenty of great teachers and students.
In addition to all of the classes I had the pleasure of taking at Ernie Pyle Hall, I found great student media opportunities here at WIUX as well as IUSTV and IUSportCom. I could not be more grateful to all the aspiring journalists I worked with here at IU, as this experience has helped shape me into the person I am today, and will hopefully lead to a lengthy career.
I have also been lucky to witness and even cover IU athletics at one of its most successful time periods in recent memory. During my time here, I’ve covered the return of IU basketball, an eighth championship celebration for Hoosier soccer, and an IU baseball team that eventually reached the College World Series. I also had the pleasure of interviewing IU track star Derek Drouin just four months after he won a bronze medal for Canada at the Olympics in London.
As I have discovered, students have an amazing amount of journalism and media opportunities here at IU. You will definitely start at the bottom, but if you keep working hard and keep improving, there is a very good chance you will be part of the media at Assembly Hall or Memorial Stadium.
Still, as I worked my way up, I gained a great appreciation for the non-revenue sports. After all, they are still NCAA Division I sports, and participants still don the Cream and Crimson. The first broadcast I ever did for WIUX was a baseball game at the old Sembower Field. It was an exciting game, which the Hoosiers won in walk-off fashion, and a great way to kick off play-by-play for me. In fact, if 2012-13 was any indication, it might be these non-revenue teams that will make Bloomington the most proud, giving young students even more reason to start with baseball or soccer.
If you want to enjoy a true, cream and crimson B-town experience, you must get involved. As I learned my first semester here, IU is not the easiest place to make friends. If you don't get involved in something, you don't make many connections, and there's a good chance you will be lonely most of the time and constantly left out in the cold while many other students are partying, tailgating or having other kinds of fun.
My first semester here was quite boring, as I was not part of student media yet, and the only people I ever hung out with were kids I knew from high school. But when I began to get involved in IUSTV and WIUX, I began to make more friends and get more access to social events, which greatly enhanced my college experience. Even if it's not in student media, I would encourage all future students to join a group of some kind.
All in all, I am extremely glad I chose to attend Indiana. I have had experiences and developed friendships that will last a lifetime, and I've even learned a lot about myself and gained leadership skills I can use in the professional world. Regardless of whether I'm working in radio, television, newspapers, or at Buffalo Wild Wings, Indiana University will always hold a special place in my heart.
-Adam Reinhart
