At 3:56 am, a student sits in the booth at the WGRE radio station, preparing the ï¬nal song of her DJ shift for her Winter Term class.
This DJ is one of approximately 20 students involved in the WGRE Winter Term class, in which the participants write and broadcast all of their own material in order to keep DePauw's radio station constantly active throughout Winter Term.
Professor Jeffrey McCall, who is teaching this Winter Term course, believes that acquiring interest in a ï¬eld that the students may not have previously considered is part of the goal of Winter Term.
"WGRE as a Winter Term class can be a springboard for developing this as a co-curricular interest," McCall said. "It's a secondary goal in terms of recruitment for the station."
First-year Grace Coburn has noticed her peers' developing interest in continuing with WGRE after just one week of classes.
"I think a majority of my classmates in the winter term class have signed up for second semester slot times already," Coburn said.
Prior to the beginning of the Winter Term course, only three students in the class had previous experience working for WGRE. In just the ï¬rst week of class, McCall said, approximately eight students involved in the Winter Term approached him expressing interest in continuing to participate in WGRE next semester.
McCall believes that his class not only provides students with the tools that they need to succeed in radio, but that it also broadens their horizons relative to all media.
"Being in the media business is a multi-faceted thing," he said. "You need to know a lot of different things about that process, and I think that if you can understand that process then there is a lot that can be learned, even for people that are not going into the media for careers."
First-year Amber Allen has found that, while she is not sure if she wants to go into radio broadcasting as a career, this Winter Term has helped her with essential life skills such as including public speaking, enunciation, writing and interviewing.
"If you can work for the radio you can work for any type of broadcasting," Allen said. "You can go into TV or newspaper if you want to, just because they teach you those types of skills."
Coburn adds that this class has helped her with using her voice as a powerful tool, because radio does not have visual aides in the way that print and television journalism do.
"On TV you can show something, or you can explain it in writing, and in print you can provide pictures, but with radio you are only giving your voice to explain and get the point across," Coburn said. "It helps prepare you for all types of media.