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For Immediate Release
April 17, 2008 - King’s College, one of its most prominent local graduates and business leaders, and WVIA have formed a unique and unprecedented collaboration for the mutual benefit of the College’s students and Northeast’s Pennsylvania only public media enterprise. Through a gift to WVIA, Charles Parente, a 1962 graduate of King’s and local business entrepreneur, has created the Parente/King’s Fund for Media Excellence. WVIA management has agreed to provide exclusive mentorship and employment opportunities to King’s faculty and students in television, radio and internet operations. Among the exclusive opportunities made available by WVIA to King’s students are executive shadowing and mentoring programs, a formal film school workshop and semester-long full-time paid “Filmmaker in Residence” program, one three credit scholarship per year for a top King’s communications student, a mentoring experience for a member of WRKC (the King’s student-run radio station) with WVIA-FM and hands-on experience with the station’s new digital media equipment. The program also includes the opportunity for King’s students to participate in projects with the stations Education and Programming Departments as well as the station’s web team. (a full description of the program is attached to this release). “By providing the resources to create this unique relationship between King’s College and WVIA, our family is able to build on our commitment to the community and King’s College,” said John Parente, son of Charles. “When Chuck Parente challenged WVIA to create a wholly unique partnership with King’s, our staff embraced the opportunity with imagination and excitement,” said Bill Kelly, WVIA president and chief executive officer. “The family's grant will enrich and prepare King's students to be highly marketable in a number of mass communication fields.” “We are excited by this outstanding opportunity for our students in the Mass Communications Department. This presents a unique opportunity for King's to partner with a tremendous and valued community resource, WVIA. We are indebted to both the Parente family and WVIA for creating this opportunity for our students,” said Father Tom O’Hara, president of King’s College.King's College is a Catholic College sponsored by the congregation of Holy Cross. |