Emma Scholfield is a second-year student at Jackson College. She’s also a radio personality.
“I had started doing public speaking competitions in my high school and everybody was just kind of like, ‘wow, you have a good voice. You talk very well.’ I just loved telling stories to a lot of people and a lot of my classmates,” she said.
The Jonesville native said her mom brought up the idea for her to pursue this path.
“I wanted to be a lawyer. I wanted to be a school teacher like nothing even close to this. My mom told me I should be in radio or broadcasting of some sort. I said, ‘I guess I could do it,’ and then the more I started practicing it and doing it, the more I just kind of fell in love with it.”
Getting her start
It paid off. Now you can listen to her on Hillsdale’s 99.5 The Dale.
“I reached out to a couple of people here being that I had a radio station in my hometown, and I decided to ask them and see if they needed any help or anywhere just to kind of get my feet wet in the industry,” she said. “As I progressed and started working more with the company, they decided to offer me my own show after they were able to hear me talk and communicate on the air.”
A typical day for Scholfield will have her record commercials, edit and produce the spots and sending them for air approval. Afterwards she will hunker down for show prep. Normally she talks about country music and country celebrities. She also records news and weather hits.
College connections
Jackson College has helped her along the way by opening opportunities to make connections with people to help her advance in the broadcasting and communications industry.
Scholfield is a Heritage Center student which she says is a good way to give back to the community through volunteering and finding out Jackson’s history. She is also a Writing Fellow where she can practice her communication skills and meet one-on-one with students to help them achieve their writing goals.
“It can also help you improve in a lot of other ways,” she said. “The idea of knowing you’re able to give back to students who are in need of writing assistance, it just really helps everyone, and it seems like a win-win situation to me.”
Scholfield plans to transfer to a university to continue studying communications and broadcasting. She isn’t sure which institution yet, but University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Central Michigan University are on her list.
Going far while close to home
She says Jackson College has helped her get to this point by being able to adapt to the college atmosphere but also by getting more one-on-one communication with instructors, creating good study habits and completing credits.
“It’s helped me financially and I’m able to stay closer to home,” Scholfield said. “I was able to stay closer to home and take on this job. The flexibility with being able to take classes online allowed me to be able to work and it has helped me a lot.”
When she isn’t assisting other students with their writing skills or participating in the Heritage Center, she also is a restaurant server and announces sporting events at her alma mater Jonesville High School.
Scholfield currently lives in Hillsdale.
Hillsdale’s WCSR 92.1 FM and 99.5 The Dale are owned by the McKibbin Media Group and are sister stations to Jackson’s Hit Music Station K-105.3, Fox Sports 101.9 FM, Jackson’s NewsTalk 970 AM/101.5 FM and 95.9 The Power Cow.