NEWARK , November 3, 1999 - Working in the high pressure hub of a television news network like New York City's WNBC may be intimidating for most college students, but that's not the case for New Jersey Institute of Technology communications majors Ahmed Soliman, Dalya Ewais and Haydee Brito, who recently completed stints as interns at WNBC's News Channel 4.

      One key reason was preparation: The three students were able to "hit the ground running" at WNBC, thanks to one of NJIT's newest major degree programs, Professional and Technical Communication (PTC). "Through the PTC program, we were given a solid understanding of journalism as well as computers, that enabled us to contribute right from the very beginning," notes Ahmed.

      Ahmed worked at WNBC for the local portion of the WNBC web site, where he used his writing, editing and computer skills to take stories off the wire, edit and post them to the web site. Soliman also posted photos and graphics shown on newscasts and rewrote broadcast news stories for posting on the web. He updated weather reports, handled "streaming" video reports, and archived all NBC stories that ran on the station's website.

      In addition, Ahmed worked on "Cyber Corner" a daily segment on WNBC that highlights computer and Internet-related news.

      Dalya Ewais and Haydee Brito had equally exciting jobs working with Asa Aarons, the consumer reporter who does the "Ask Asa" segment of News Channel 4's Six O'Clock News. "We helped select stories to be covered, read and sorted consumer mail and e-mail, and handled voice mail and telephone messages," notes Ewais, who is also editor of The Vector, the NJIT student newspaper.

      Notes Dianne Doctor, WNBC's Executive Producer of Special Projects, "These students possess a unique combination for an internship in today's television industry because of their experiences in the technological world," said Doctor. "For example," she noted, "the students used their technical abilities to enhance their research skills."

     The PTC curriculum was developed by NJIT's Humanities faculty precisely to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world, says Program Director Professor Burt Kimmelman. "Aside from television, PTC students are educated to work in a wide variety of professions," he says.

     They include multimedia design and Internet communications, print journalism, magazine and book publishing, advertising, hardware/software documentation, and technical writing and editing.

     Among other fields covered in the PTC program are grant proposal writing, legal documentation, environmental risk assessment, writing for regulatory agencies, quality assurance documentation, medical and/or scientific analysis and technical analysis.

     The students performed a range of tasks at WNBC. Among other duties, Dalya went on a "shoot" with Asa during which he covered a story for his news segment, and provided some on-camera training. "He had me practice a few stand-ups on camera to get the feel of the whole process - how fast to speak, how to breathe, what tones to use," notes Dalya.

     Both Dalya and Haydee sat in on the editing process with the producer of the show. They logged tapes and transcribed them. The two interns particularly enjoyed seeing the life of a news story unfold from its inception to its final airing, "from shooting the news story and editing the footage, to the actual news show," said Haydee.

     Aside from giving her a good idea of what it might be like to work in the television industry, Haydee said the internship gave her the opportunity to meet many people who can open doors should she choose such a career. "It was a wonderful experience."

     "I am particularly proud of the splendid performances of these individuals," Kimmelman remarked. "They not only made a fine start to their careers, but they have borne out the expectations we had for PTC. Their value in the rapidly transforming media field was obvious to all."

     NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,200 bachelor's, master's and doctoral students in 83 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, multimedia, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science.

     Yahoo! Internet Life magazine has ranked NJIT as America's "most wired" public university for two consecutive years, U.S. News and World Report's 1999 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT among the nation's top universities, and Money magazine's most recent issue of Best College Buys rated NJIT as the sixth best value among U.S. science and technology schools and among the top 100 overall. In September 1999, Mademoiselle ranked NJIT as the second most Internet-connected university in the nation.