The Sacred Heart Greenwich Alumnae Media Network presented the “Mix and Mingle: Navigating the Media Industry” event November 18 to expose Broadcast Journalism students to careers in the media field.  The panelists were five Sacred Heart alumnae, Ms. Kate Benjamin ‘11, Ms. Caroline Keller ‘13, Ms. Erica Jorgensen ‘04, Ms. Erin Manning ‘13, and the emcee of the event, Ms. Caroline Burch ‘15. 

The event, open to Sacred Heart Broadcast Journalism students in the classes of 2021 and 2022, as well as to all Sacred Heart alumnae, took place over Zoom from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and began with a panel discussion, followed by breakout rooms.

Ms. Ellyn Stewart P ’26, Studio Director and Broadcast Journalism Teacher, welcomed the panelists and attendees.  The alumnae then took questions from the group.  Following the question and answer session, attendees moved to breakout rooms with one of the five alumna to learn more about her specific occupation.

Ms. Burch graduated from the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California in 2019, and then began working as a Digital Production Assistant at The Ellen DeGeneres Show.  Throughout her undergraduate studies, Ms. Burch interned at a variety of jobs in the media industry.  She was Mr. Will Forte’s personal assistant on Last Man on Earth and worked as a script intern for Late Night with Seth Meyers. 

Currently working at Sesame Workshop as an International Social Impact Manager, Ms. Manning graduated from Sacred Heart Greenwich in 2013.  She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University in 2017.  Ms. Manning remarked upon how her Sacred Heart education and the community the school offered prepared her for a future career in media. 

“Sacred Heart gave me not only the access to media and being able to produce and develop my own content, but also gave me a good early plug to the goals and criteria,” Ms. Manning said.  “I work in the impact space and in community development, and I think that was something that was really engraved in me since my first day of 8th grade at Sacred Heart.”

Since October 2019, Ms. Benjamin has worked as a Product Strategy Manager at WarnerMedia, where she oversees the rollout of the corporation’s national addressable strategy.  Ms. Benjamin graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 2015. 

Ms. Jorgensen works as an Executive Producer of Investigations and Special Projects at NBCUniversal Media in West Hartford, Connecticut.  She graduated from Sacred Heart in 2004 prior to receiving her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from Brown University.  Ms. Jorgensen is a multiple Edward R. Murrow Award recipient and an eight-time Emmy award-winning investigative producer. 

After graduating from Sacred Heart in 2013, Ms. Keller continued her education at Tulane University, where she received a B.A. degree in Economics, Digital Media Production, and Chinese.  She now works as a Franchise Production Coordinator at Lucasfilm in San Francisco, California.  Lucasfilm is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios.  Ms. Keller reflected on her time at Sacred Heart and how it has benefited her in her professional life.

“There are so many opportunities at Sacred Heart that so many people don’t get, and if you take advantage of them, you have a good chance of knowing what you want to do, even before college,” Ms. Keller said. 

Featured Image by Dylan Drury ’22