Broadcast Reporting

Shakur Cistrunk started college last semester with high expectations for himself. Being a first-generation college student, he feels “the weight of the world” to achieve.  Cistrunk grew up in Akron, Ohio with five siblings. Throughout his life, he found his community through music. He learned to play the trumpet in fifth grade. He first found a passion for the instrument when he discovered jazz. “Originally when I first started to play the trumpet, I really didn’t like it. It just…

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How does a kid from San Diego end up in Kent, Ohio? The answer to that question is simpler than you may think.  Kent State provided Heidi Marshall with something not a lot of people get: a second shot at her dream. “Growing up, I always played soccer and it was always my dream to play college soccer at a high level,” Heidi said. “Going into my freshman year of high school, I knew that was something I would be…

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When fourth-year students Carina Joseph and Rebecca Mansour started their journey to Kent State when they boarded a plane in Lebanon.  Adapting to the new culture has been challenging, but they have had each other to lean on.  “Rebecca and I weren’t that close before, but because we knew we were coming here, we took this chance to get closer,” Joseph said. “Because of the same experience we are going through, we became closer, which made it so much easier.”…

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From unwanted child to Kent State hockey player. For most children being in the adoption process can make you feel very uncertain about your future. It can also make you feel unwanted and not worthy to be here. However, that is the opposite for one Kent State student. Jacob Schaltenbrand was born in Guatemala and at the age of two his original birth parents did not want him anymore. He was sent to a foster care facility in Guatemala and…

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In the fall semester at Kent State University in 2021, Kaitlyn Bittner, a freshman, made an impulsive decision that altered the course of her education. She chose to enlist in the army. At the time, her tuition being paid for was the only thing that impacted her decision. “I could not pay for school at all. No loans, no grants. Nothing was working out for me. I got an email one day from a recruiter, and I only know how…

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Joan Steidl has worn a lot of hats throughout her life.  She’s worked in public relations for the now defunct Richfield Coliseum and Cleveland Force soccer team, an aluminum siding company and the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. She rubbed shoulders with the likes of Angelo Dundee as a boxing promoter, was the “Litter Queen of Cuyahoga County,” managed an assisted living center in Cleveland and who could forget that one time she worked in a rubber factory to fund her…

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