photo by Dominique Hildebrand
Senior Broadcast Journalism major, James Hill, was one of many to establish the popular U-View morning show, “Daybreak in the Plaza.”

Always thinking about the career he hopes to pursue in Pittsburgh, aspiring broadcaster James Hill decided on a visit to Washington, D.C. to do some television shots in front of the White House, leading to an unforgettable visit with a CBS reporter.

Now the Point Park senior is making news on campus with a segment he helped start last year, “Daybreak in the Plaza.” 

Many Point Parkers already know of the U-View morning show, Daybreak: a half-hour morning news/talk/entertainment program to inform the Point Park community of what the campus and city has to offer.

All of those experiences not only make Hill one of the School of Communication’s biggest promoters, but he hopes to culminate in a job doing news broadcasting in the Pittsburgh market, eventually building a career and family.

“I believe this nation is all about Pennsylvania,” he said. “I belong here.”

A Pittsburgh native his whole life, James grew up in the Hill District and Highland Park neighborhoods.  He is a proud 2011 graduate of Schenley High School, also known as the last graduating class before the school’s closure.  It is easy to see that no student has more appreciation for Schenley than Hill does. He developed a fanatical devotion to the school, and he said it’s the reason he decided to study journalism.

“Schenley defines who I am today,” Hill said. “My older sisters graduated from Schenley, and my uncle was the school’s longtime track and field coach.”

Last year, Hill appeared in a documentary, “Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve: The Story of Schenley High School,” with memorabilia he has collected over the years. 

He is quoted in the film: “Schenley, even though it was shrouded in controversy, had a good first 90 years, and it’s good that that story will now be told as well.”

Hill chose to come to Point Park because of the journalism program and his love for the City of Pittsburgh. He said the size of Point Park was ideal for him and the way he learns.

“It’s remarkable that my teachers know who I am,” he said. “My friends at [University of Pittsburgh] and Temple are in a class of 300 people and never get to talk to their teachers. I can’t see myself liking something like that.”

Once he got to Point Park, Hill acclimated himself with the television productions the school offers. He joined the PPU T.V. Station, U-View, as a freshman. Little appearances on camera grew into fulltime hosting by his junior and senior year. Paul Coatsworth, a School of Communications professor, watched Hill as he grew through the program.

“James’s talent has only gotten better over the years,” Coatsworth said. “His on-camera work is top notch and he often thinks outside the box, which makes him stand out.”

Every journalist focusing on television broadcasting should have a reel to submit when applying for a job. Hill has been working on his reel since he took his On-Camera Production class his sophomore year, where he would go to various Pittsburgh sites and events and perform a stand-up. This past summer, on a whim, Hill wanted to go to the nation’s capital to film a stand up outside the White House. 

“I was thinking about graduation coming up, and I wanted something to make me stand out,” Hill said.

From there, along with four other aspiring Point Park journalists, he hopped into a car at 3 a.m. and drove to Washington D.C.  He said they got pretty shots outside the fence, but he wanted more so he called the White House Press Office. 

“Technically we are journalists, why can’t we go inside?” Hill said.

What happened next, he called an amazing experience. The Press Office granted them press access to an event going on in the White House after clearing their security, and the four Point Park students were buzzed into the White House as tourists lined up outside.

Once inside, a CBS affiliate by the name of Dan Huff approached them because they looked confused and out of place.

“He came up to us and asked where we were from,” graduate Chris Hoffman, who also attended the trip, said. “We told him we were from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, and he said ‘I’m from Pittsburgh!’”

Huff took the students down to a swimming pool below the press briefing room. It was the same swimming pool FDR had put in during his presidency. Thousands of signatures fill this pool including Tom Hanks and Marilyn Monroe, and Huff told the students to place their signatures in the pool as well.

“James is a very driven young man,” Kelsie Metzgar, another graduate who attended the trip, said. “He wanted to go to D.C. and cover an event. So we did, and we got so much more from it.”

Hill is set to graduate from Point Park in May. 

He said he is not prepared to move across the nation yet and will be sending his reels and resumes to T.V. stations not too far from the Pittsburgh market area such as Erie and Steubenville.

“I am terrified of graduating,” he said. “I’ve been in a school my whole life, and now that’s coming to an end.”