Catori Carter-Hutching interviewed Chancellor Curtiss Porter.

Several months before planning her dream vacation to celebrate her 21st birthday in Hollywood, Walos and her best friend Vicki Wargo, who also shares the same birth date and was also turning 21, decided to try and get tickets to be on "Let's Make A Deal." When two tickets arrived at her home a month before their departed trip, the two women designed costumes to wear on the show. They decided on two playing cards, appropriately numbered "21." The tickets were for the August 20 taping; their 21st birthdays happened to be the 21st. They felt that luck was on their side.

After waiting in line and completing a questionnaire and being interviewed, both women were selected to be contestants. "I was so excited waiting in line for the show and then I realized that I had been chosen," she said. Walos was seated on the end of the aisle and when Wayne Brady, host of "Let's Make A Deal," made his way to her, she almost jumped out of her seat with excitement. She was picked to play the "Don't Blame Me" game with another contestant in the audience who was dressed as a shopper with gift bags hanging all over her. Sadly, her best friend was not selected to participate. Walos chose a box for the contestant who claimed a diamond necklace. The woman selected money for Walos. She claimed $600 in cash. When asked to "trade-up," the other woman chose one of the famous curtains and was zonked and lost everything.  Katie Walos decided to stick with her cash and chose not to select one of the mystery curtains.  Walos had to sign an agreement not to reveal the outcome of the show until the air date, which was Wednesday, November 10.

For three months she had to contain one of the biggest secrets that she had known, but remembering the outcome and her winnings, always made her smile. "I'm glad it's out in the open now and I can talk about it with my family and friends. It was a great experience. A once in a life time experience."

At Penn State Greater Allegheny, students in Communications 471, a public relations methods course, taught by Kathy Taylor Brown, assistant professor of communications, have created digital stories that will be shown on campus. According to the text book the students use in class, Digital Storytelling: A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment, written by Carolyn Handler Miller, “Even when designed to serve pragmatic goals, works of digital storytelling always have elements of narrative and always offer some degree of entertainment.”

Sam Weinreb, a Holocaust survivor who resides in Western Pennsylvania, had his story captured by Emily Blake, Shannon Putt, Robert Rex, and Kaitlyn Walos, all students in Browns class. The group’s story is a three part video on which they take a look a Mr. Weinreb’s life before, during, and after the Holocaust.

Students Alex Bobbs, Nick Johns, Dan Koenig, Dan Stritmatter, and Sean Wood made a digital story on a personal account of a man who was at Woodstock Music and Art Fair in 1969. The group focused on Ted Kelly and his experiences at Woodstock. The video included photos and music samples.

The final group documented something all Penn State students are familiar with, THON. Students Ashley Brooks, Allison Iksic, Lee Marts, and Alydia Thomas put together a documentary about THON’s history and what THON means to Penn State Greater Allegheny students. The group interviewed Breanne Nero who is the current CCSG THON Chair and the dancers from this campus that took part in THON this year.

In January the class attended a training session in one of the computer labs in Crawford, taught by Justin Miller, who works in the Digital Media Commons at University Park. The students were taught how to film, edit, save, and upload their videos to YouTube. Each student made a short video, added pictures and music, and uploaded it to YouTube.

The students have also been learning how to use social networking sites through the course. The class currently has a group set up on Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook group was used to critiques each other’s videos from YouTube and Twitter is used for any class announcements.

Dr. Kathleen Taylor Brown, assistant professor of communications, will introduce Lippincott to her class in an effort to expand their writing experiences. Her presentation followed by a book signing will focus on creative nonfiction and her current specialty writing lifestories.

Lippincott offers interactive writing workshops based on her credos that anything you write is better than writing nothing and that there is no single right way to approach writing: “The way you write is as personal as your fingerprint. Explore your unique style and respect it.” She helps students identify their personal writing preferences and voice. The book offers step by step instructions on how to begin writing about your own life story.

The Penn State communications class will apply the training from Lippincott to provide outreach for seniors in the local community through Blueroof Technologies Research Associates. The goal of the collaboration is to teach seniors to use computers by writing their own lifestories. The students will mentor seniors through the “Follow me Home Initiative” while using lifestories as the catalyst for learning.

Lippincott is a native of western Pennsylvania, a sought after speaker and has been a published author for over 25 years on business, professional and general interest topics. The presentation is free and open to the public. For more information please contact 412-675-9180.