When my friend Mike Nardella ’13 first told me to sign up for a website called “StreakNews,” I thought he was playing a practical joke on me to get my email spammed with some type of graphic images. However, StreakNews was actually a website that this New Jersey native and Economics major had created with his friend Andrew Stern (NYU ’13), that provides its users with email updates about worldwide news, weather information, sports statistics, and fun YouTube videos. Needless to say, I was hooked.
From May to August over this past summer, StreakNews provided 100 users with their daily dose of information, and when it was shut-down for repairs, many people, including myself, were upset that they were no longer getting their daily updates (… sorry about the angry texts, Mike). However, this month StreakNews will be re-launching as The Streak, and ready for the best part? There will be an exclusive section for the residents of The Heights. The new, updated Streak will include a “BCStreak” section including Chestnut Hill weather, information about our athletic teams, and even some articles from The Heights while still providing the bread and butter basics of StreakNews.
When I asked Mike why he was inspired to create such a site, he talked about a simple yet evident problem— the average college student rarely knows what is going on beyond the front door of their college dorm but in the age of the technological media revolution, has a desire to always know what is happening. As Nardella points out about his website, “The Streak breaks everything you need to know for the coming day down into one, concise, easy to read email— every email includes general news but also daily weather, weekly movie releases, and more. You can even actually customize your daily email by adding a Sports and/or Business section!”
When Mike is not creating amazing websites, being the co-Vice President of programming for RHA, or lounging around with his fellow Jersey-ites off campus, he is also a working actor. In fact, you might remember him as the Chuck E Cheese kid from the commercials or as Chris Parnell’s son in a Saturday Night Live skit. Now, he has three additional commercials coming up that he shot this summer for Coca-Cola, Fruit Roll-Ups, and Bank of America. But, for me, no matter how successful he becomes with this great website, he has already reached the pinnacle of greatness– a Nickelodeon Magazine cover model. Campus celebrity? Indeed.