During Chloe Berwick’s junior year of high school, she took a video production class and learned how to use Adobe Premiere. As senior year came around, she thought about what she wanted to major in when she got to Rutgers in the fall.

“I knew that I wanted a creative career, and I liked video editing and production, so I wanted to see where I could take that,” she said.

Coming into Rutgers with a well-versed skillset in many different technical applications, she was unsure of which major she wanted to go into. Berwick said what she learned at the Rutgers-New Brunswick-sponsored Admitted Student Day event was the key factor that led her to choose Journalism and Media Studies as her major.

“In the spring of my senior year [of high school], I met Steve Miller, and he convinced me that majoring in JMS would be the right decision. I knew I had to have him as my professor. Fast-forward to freshman year, I took Intro to Media with him in the fall semester. I think it was because of Steve Miller, in addition to talking with alumni like Zack Morrison and Erica Herskowitz, that helped me understand why JMS was the best fit for me and my goals,” Berwick said.

In our Q&A with Berwick, she describes the type of experiences she’s been able to have and how she has expanded her skill set through her Journalism and Media studies major.

SC&I: How have you gotten involved during your time at Rutgers?
CB: I got involved with  WRSU (Rutgers Radio) at the beginning of my freshman year. As our Promotions Director was graduating that May, the position became available, so I decided to run. The Radio Council elected me, and I’ve been the Promotions Director for the last year and a half. Currently, I’m a Student Media Ambassador for Rutgers Communications and Marketing. I'm also a contributing photographer for The Daily Targum, which I started this past spring, and I am a contributing writer for HerCampus Rutgers. I was also a Social Media Intern for Student Affairs from May 2023 to May 2024.

I also really enjoyed my experience with Scarlet Media, where I was a Commercial Producer on “The Big Show” and a reporter at Rutgers Day this year. I got to briefly interview President Holloway, which was amazing. I also earned my Live Digital Production Training badge with Scarlet Media that I can put on my LinkedIn profile. 

SC&I: Is there a specific internship experience you had, whether it was at Rutgers or elsewhere, that you enjoyed, or felt that it was the path you wanted to go down?
CB: I worked at Ascension Press, a Catholic media and publishing company, from January-August 2024. I was working as a social media marketing intern, and it was the first time that I had worked inside of a company before. I got to learn how a company works, including departments outside of Media. Even though it's a small company I was able to open myself up to the possibility of pursuing something other than video, maybe PR or HR. For the social media marketing aspect of it, I got to work with Photoshop and make graphics, and that was something that I didn’t have much experience with before. I was also tracking analytics and learning the math side of marketing, which I also didn't have much prior experience with. Now, I've taken that new knowledge with me into my work at WRSU.

SC&I: How do you hope to leverage all you've learned in the classroom and the skills that you've built at Rutgers in the future?
CB: If I had to pick right now, I would choose video production or social media management as my career. Since I enjoyed my internship with Ascension so much, I think I could see myself in a similar position, as opposed to doing freelance. I am open to anything though, and I think JMS has made it clear that you can take this experience anywhere.

SC&I: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
CB: SC&I has always felt very much like a family. As Steve Miller says, JMS majors look out for each other, especially post-grad when we help each other find job opportunities. I’m incredibly grateful for all that SC&I has offered me and I look forward to potentially working with my JMS peers after Rutgers!

Learn more about the Journalism and Media Studies major at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.

Photos: Courtesy of Chloe Berwick