Public Eye News (PEN), NMU’s student run broadcasting program, will be hosting a News Industry Job Forum with Tia Trudgeon, morning live reporter at WLUC-TV6, on Friday, April 1 to speak about career opportunities in the news broadcasting industry.

The News Industry Job Forum will take place in the Thomas Fine Arts building in room 234 at 5 p.m. and will consist of a group discussion about the media industry market and a question and answer session, said Leah Purkiss, producer for PEN and senior art and design major.

Trudgeon, a Marquette native, graduated from Michigan State University in 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in film studies. Shortly after, she moved back to Marquette and has been at TV6 since January 2021, according to her profile on TV6’s website.

“Being that Tia now knows the business inside and out, we really appreciate her willingness to talk about her professional journey with her contemporaries here at NMU,” said Mike Settles, advisor of PEN.

Michael Cudahy, junior multimedia production major, plans to attend the forum to look into possible careers in news production.

“I just see an opportunity to potentially open some doors for a career and I think that’s pretty neat,” said Cudahy.

Cudahy joined PEN and also works as a camera operator for the hockey games. Cudahy is one of many students who has worked on writing and production skills in the PEN program. 

Purkiss said she hopes that by bringing in Trudgeon more students will join PEN, and other clubs and student organizations at NMU will host more guest speakers in their respective industries.

“It’s going to be a good learning opportunity for all no matter where you’re coming from,” said Purkiss. “We really want to invite people from any major to come to this event to see what lies within the media industry.”

Purkiss, along with Caden Meines, anchor for PEN and multimedia production major, co-organized this event to showcase the opportunities available to students.

“Organizing this with Tia was literally a conversation in the newsroom after I got to know her and she was really hyped about doing something at the campus,” said Purkiss.

Both, Purkiss and Meines, have worked at TV6 for the morning news and have created professional relationships with the staff including Trudgeon.

“The three of them recently got to talking about their positive professional experiences and thought it might be helpful to share them with up-and-coming multimedia journalism majors and other interested NMU students,” said Settles.

Meines works at TV6 as a videographer and had been talking with Trudgeon previously about having an event for PEN but did not have a producer at the station in on it, said Purkiss.

“So once I was there, I said, ‘you know what, this may be a great opportunity to get someone in the real world who was not a multimedia major to discuss how to get a job within this industry,’” said Purkiss. “You can still get a job in this industry if you play your cards correctly.”

Students interested in attending the forum can register online on the Hub.