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In-depth Experience

Teresa Sikorski

Clear Skies Ahead

Turning on her megawatt smile, she steps in front of the camera and stands in front of the green screen to deliver the weekend weather forecast that predicts two feet of snow.

Meet Teresa Sikorski, the floor leader for the WeatherWatcher living-learning community and on-the-air anchor for the Rutgers WeatherWatcher program. This partnership between RU-tv, the Office of Undergraduate Education, and the Rutgers meteorology program brings weather forecasts every 15 minutes to viewers of the Rutgers Preview Channel. This meteorology major at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences does more than study the weather—she eats, sleeps, and lives it.

Students like Teresa who share a fascination with weather, TV broadcasting, and communicating about the environment have captured the attention of the broadcast industry as they turn their passions into potential careers.

 
WeatherWatcher Living-learning Community
 

Located in Perry Hall on the Cook Campus, the WeatherWatcher Living-Learning Community offers special benefits to students who want to explore a unique opportunity to get hands-on experience in broadcast communications and learn the basics of broadcast meteorology. Learn more.

How did you get interested in meteorology?
I've always been into weather, since I was a child. I love to stand at the window during storms and watch the thunder and lightning. There is something about the inability to control the storms that makes them fascinating.

When I was a freshman in high school, my earth sciences teacher really got me into meteorology. He was a complete "weather weenie" who followed all the latest weather models and would lean out of his car to take pictures of clouds. He helped me find schools with weather programs and decide if it was something I really wanted to do.

Why did you choose to come to Rutgers?
Rutgers was one of the few schools that had a reputable program in my major that wasn't horribly close to home—but still close enough so I could get back easily—and was the least expensive; so overall it was the best bang for my buck.

It also offered an honors program with access to people like program director Timothy M. Casey whose seminar on conservation and resources in the national parks helped me narrow down what I want to do with my meteorology degree when I graduate.

Why did you decide to join the WeatherWatcher living-learning community?
I started out wanting to do broadcast meteorology, but a lot of the meteorology programs don’t have a focus on broadcast. The schools that do don’t let you get involved in any kind of production or behind the scenes work until you are at least a junior. So when I found out that at Rutgers you could pretty much be on camera your first semester, I thought, "Wow, that’s really cool!" It was unheard of at any of the other schools I looked at.

I also liked the housing aspects: I would have a TV studio right down the hall, get to live with students who were in my major, and still be located in the main part of the campus. It was a great selling point. The program seemed made for people like me.

How has residing in the living-learning community helped you grow and accomplish your goals?
Just being surrounded by people who share your love of weather is helpful and gives me access to a whole group of people to bounce ideas off of when I have questions about my classes or other problems.

Also, I used to be terrified of giving speeches and speaking in public. Through doing on-camera forecasts, where I have to review my tapes and rerecord them until I get it right, I’ve learned how to speak in front of an audience and I’ve gained a lot more confidence. I had a lot of class presentations this past semester. Had this happened last year, I would have still had a lot of nervousness, which I didn’t have this year. It has made a big impact on how I present myself. The living-learning community also helped me realize that I really wanted to concentrate on the science of meteorology professionally.

See Teresa in action during the WeatherWatcher segment at 8:12 on the Wake Up Rutgers video.

Teresa SikorskiWhere do you film the weather broadcasts, and how are they done?
Filming takes place in Perry Hall on the Cook Campus. There is a fully equipped TV studio on the first floor of the building. The forecasts are usually done with two people: one is the producer (the person on camera) and the second is the tech assistant (the one who records the forecast and sends it to the RU-tv studio on the Busch Campus).

How does the WeatherWatcher living-learning community help students prepare for jobs in the broadcasting industry?
Because the weather forecasts are taped and kept on a flash drive, you are creating your own résumé. You end up with close to 30 forecasts every year that you can use as audition tapes to work for local TV stations. You already have that on-camera experience and that‘s what people in the media look for.

The fact that you are also familiar with the behind the scenes stuff makes you an asset to a TV studio because you not only understand how things work in front of the camera but what happens behind the scene as well. So if for some reason you don’t get that on-screen job, you can apply for other positions there.

What do you want students to know about the WeatherWatcher living-learning community?
They should know that you don’t have to study weather to join the community. You can come with an interest in weather or TV production and go from there.