The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

Early to bed, early to rise

If the early bird gets the worm, then Renata Hadden is ahead of the game at 4 a.m., waking up before your typical college student.

Many college students have had to master juggling their studies with a busy work schedule while maintaining a social life.

This balancing act has added pressure for Hadden-the communication major is a full-time student working two jobs and is interning at a local radio station.

“It’s a little hard,” said Hadden referring to her unpaid Fall Semester internship at POP 101.9 FM, “but it isn’t the money that gets me out of bed. It is fun working there and the people make the experience.”

Like many students at the U, she commutes every day, but she does it before dawn. She said she likes missing the traffic, but commuting doesn’t allow her to get more involved around campus.

The Utahn got the radio job after Tiffany Stalker, a new radio personality for 101.9 POP FM, spoke in Ken Foster’s advertising class in early September and Stalker said she was looking for an intern at the station.

With eager interest, the 22-year-old, brown-haired student approached the station and changed her sleeping habits for the rest of the semester.

Far from an average student routine, Hadden’s typical weekday makes getting up a bit difficult.

“I wake up at 4 a.m. if I’m feeling good and I have to be at the station at 5 a.m. I’m there until 10 and then go straight to school and have class until 5 p.m.”

A few days a week, things get more complicated when Hadden cruises downtown to another job and works until 10:30 p.m. Time management has become an important skill and she remembers to keep a social life, if only on weekends.

“I guess they say you work hard, you play hard. I catch up on sleep between classes and weekend afternoons then go out with my friends weekend nights. I just don’t go out on the weekdays.”

Hadden learned during the first few weeks of the internship not to push too hard.

“If I went out during the week, it would kill me and it’s not worth it for me to do that so I don’t.”

Without the internship, Hadden said she would not have considered a job in radio.

“I’m leaning more toward the radio and personality now because it’s more active and they have promotions and events. I would like to do stuff like that.”

Hadden also enjoys using her creativity on the job.

“We have slang lessons which is my favorite part of the whole thing. They have a slang word and you make up a sentence of what you think the words means, like they used po-po which means police and they want you to make up sentences with slang and so you just throw them all together.”

Working with the show’s personalities made Hadden realize there is more behind the scene than what is heard over the radio.

“I get to watch and see exactly how it is, and on the air they are so happy and off they get frustrated with things if it’s not going right. It’s sort of like night and day, and it really is a personality.”

The morning show incorporates the college student’s opinion in different parts of the program.

“I make comments-random comments-and they ask me questions. I don’t know for some reason, one-on-one I am completely fine with people, completely fine. But when I get on the radio, I’m totally gun shy.”

With all the extra demand her internship created, Hadden said she focuses on the fact it only lasts a semester. She said the interacting and experience makes her get up in the morning.

“I keep telling myself, my motivation is: In the end this will pay off and it’s only for a couple of months and I can do it. You won’t get the experience unless you go and you don’t suffer. You just find some aspect in it that you like and you do it for that. I think that is one thing that keeps me going and pushes me through. I love the experience.”

Many students tend to change their majors for different reasons. Hadden had started as a dance major.

“It didn’t work out at the time, with any of those art majors you have to want it and love it at the time and you have to focus on it. I wasn’t ready to focus on it at that time.”

After Hadden decided she didn’t have the dedication for ballet, she tried business and found out it wasn’t her niche either. However, Hadden said since she has been in the communication department, she has gotten to know more students.

“I am a super senior and this is my third major,” Hadden said.

Looking back on the many changes in her time at the U, Hadden is finally convinced that despite the busy schedule, she has made the right choice.

“I should have just done communication because I love going to the classes and I have enjoyed it the whole time. I hated writing, but in communication they don’t want a lot of hoopla. [The writing] is short and precise and it is different than an English major.”

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