You’ve probably seen Barry Wygel around SUNY Oswego; whether he’s helping out residents with SAVAC (Student Association Volunteer Ambulance Corps), volunteering at the local Catholic ministry, the Newman Center, or anchoring the news on WTOP.
It’s what you don’t see that make Wygel this week’s Campus Celebrity. While we see him all the time out on the job, he puts just as much time and effort behind the scenes in every organization he’s part of. A senior journalism major with a double minor in history and political science, Wygel’s taken on extra responsibilities as news director for WTOP, vice president for SAVAC, and retreat coordinator for the Newman Center.
“I’ve always considered myself to be a leader,” Wygel says. “I like to think I can take a group of peoples’ ideas and work them together to create the best possible idea out of that.”
The most recent idea Wygel brought to fruition was this year’s WTOP live show before the Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit. The show marked the first time the school TV station had been involved with the annual summit.
“A couple weeks ago, we were asked what WTOP was going to do with the media summit,” he says. “I thought, instead of just taking it and putting it on air, why don’t we do a live show?”
After a brief planning process that included Wygel meeting with director of the summit, Dr. David Moody, and coordinating the show with Campus Technology Services, Wygel produced an hour long, red carpet style pre-show.
“It was really successful, the school loved it,” Wygel says. “The media summit is well known with celebrities and experts flying in from all over the country. If we can attach this preshow with it, hopefully it will be something the school can benefit from in the future.”
The preshow was just another responsibility Wygel took on as news director, a position he has held since his junior year. As news director, he puts on five nightly newscasts and one political talk show, along with picking the talent and managing the crew.
“There are 97 people involved in just the news department,” Wygel says. “I coordinate everything on a day-to-day basis and make sure everything runs smoothly.”
Since being elected to the position, Wygel has enacted numerous changes to the news department.
“My sophomore year, I worked closely with the former news director, and saw a lot of things he was doing well and a couple things I wanted to improve on,” he says. “I think I’ve incorporated his best ideas and my best ideas together.”
Those changes include adding the weekly political talk show, running an outdoor weather broadcast in each nightly newscast, adding a birds eye camera into the studio, upgrading the newsroom software, and requiring reporters to turn in packages that can later be used on their resume reels.
“A lot of the things are based on helping people get jobs and the best experience they can,” Wygel says. “It was a lot more work than I thought, but definitely rewarding and I enjoy working with everyone each day.”
When he’s not at the TV station, Wygel enjoys volunteering with SAVAC and the Newman Center.
“I really enjoy helping people,” he says. “It has nothing to do with career goals or anything, it’s really just for fun.”
Wygel has been part of SAVAC for four years, turning in his application for the volunteer ambulance association at his freshman orientation.
“I’ve been in the fire department at home for five years doing a lot of EMS, first responding stuff,” he says. “This was a natural way to continue with that.”
As retreat coordinator for the Newman Center, Wygel plans out the 20 retreats the ministry puts on for 500 high school students throughout central New York. Although he holds the retreat coordinator title, that doesn’t stop him from helping out with other aspects of the center.
“There’s a lot of volunteer stuff at the Newman Center,” Wygel says. “I’ll help out with whatever’s going on, sometimes I’ll sing in the choir or help set up for an open mic night.”
With graduation approaching in May, Wygel already has plans of what he hopes to do after he earns his diploma.
“I want to eventually be a political reporter,” he says. “I want to apply to work for YNN doing their Capital Tonight show and go down to Albany and do political reporting.”
Until then, you can catch Wygel on Tuesday nights on WTOP or helping out collegiettes™ across campus, continuing to lend a helping hand to the entire SUNY Oswego community.