UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As hundreds of dancers converge inside the Bryce Jordan Center to raise millions of dollars and battle childhood cancer during the annual Penn State IFC/Panellenic Dance Marathon (THON), a team of several dozen communications students will share the event with viewers across the world by producing the event’s annual livestream.
For the student leaders of that effort, it’s an important responsibility — one that offers a highlight of their college careers built on adaptation, family influences, real-world opportunity and teamwork.
Viewers across the world can find the livestream at THON.org from 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 20 until 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22.
Members of 46LIVE, a student-run organization supported by the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, lead the livestream. Earlier this academic year, the group produced streams of THON’S 5K, family carnival and showcase.
Two consecutive days of work — the dance marathon runs 46 hours with some 700 dancers — offers a different challenge, though.
“It’s exciting because it allows us to showcase all of our hard work and preparation,” said Emilia Halas, a senior telecommunications major from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, one of two executive producers for the livestream this year. “For me, live production is so exciting, and everyone has collaborated so well to get to this point.”
In some ways, the livestream offers a project something many college students dislike — a group project, and on the largest possible stage. The livestream serves children and families at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and typically attracts some 200,000 viewers from nearly 80 countries overall.
The livestream leaders said they are excited for their group to show off its skills and work ethic.
“This crew is so good. It’s a talented and dedicated group,” said Jake Peters, a senior journalism major from Pittsburgh. “Plus, this is something we’re all proud to be doing. There’s a responsibility associated with it.”
Peters was introduced to 46LIVE by his older sister, Georgia, who served as a livestream executive director two years ago. During his freshman year at Penn State, she connected her brother (then an aspiring veterinary and biomedical sciences major) to 46LIVE. He helped with social media and photography and found a group of colleagues with whom he shared a passion. “So, it’s pretty personal to me,” Peters said.
Halas also arrived at Penn State with other academic intentions. After considering computer engineering and music technology, she found telecommunications, which offered an outlet for her detail-oriented approach and her for the performative skills she honed as through musical theater in high school. She’s just a little more comfortable behind the scenes, she said, and putting people in a position to succeed as an executive producer has focused her career plans a bit as well.
“I feel like I lucked out with such a strong communications college and 46LIVE was the first club I joined,” Halas said. “I’ve increasingly added things, but this feels like home. Plus, there’s something special about live events and this is the kind of thing I want to be doing in the future.”
Halas, Peters and about 80 other communications students will be making their home in the Jordan Center this weekend. The group includes four teams (live, video, host, social) with their own responsibilities — and those all come together, ideally, in a smooth livestream.
Livestream directors have access eight cameras, along with a camera jib from WPSU-TV, to get shots of the action. In addition, they have already produced a couple-dozen feature packages to drop into the livestream, and THON has provided features as well.
At this point, neither Halas nor Peters has big concerns about the work-filled weekend. They know not everything will go as planned, they said, and they believe their team’s preparation will lead to success.
In addition, the presence and support of Bellisario College instructors and staff members will be important. Bill Hallman advises the 46LIVE team, and Scott Myrick, the Bellisario College’s director of media center operations, provides important planning and technological support. Both are assistant teaching professors in the college. Media production specialist Zack Shourds supports the effort as well.