Rodney Rodgers, a senior broadcast journalism student, didn’t always dream about news coverage, yet has become an emerging journalist through his time in student media and his internship. 

The Jonesboro native and reformed theater kid accredits his time as a student actor as a pivotal role in his love for storytelling. 

“My theater days were amazing,” said Rodgers. “I just got into the community theater there and it was a great community, and that’s really where I fell in love with just stories.” 

Rodgers, who transferred from Arkansas State University Newport, says that working with high school sports media provided a gateway into his journalism career. 

“I had started working for a small, little sports media company for high schools working with cameras, I really fell in love with that.”

“I transferred here from ASU Newport,” Rodgers said. “I transferred because I wanted to do film. I wanted to actually write films, but when I got here, I had to declare a minor, and they said, ‘We’ll put you in broadcast journalism.’”

“I liked my journalism classes more than my film classes that I was taking. I wanted to tell real stories. I want to share real people, not fictional, so I switched to journalism instead of film.”

During his time in UCA’s journalism program, he served as a reporter, an assistant news director and a technical director.

Rodgers recently finished an internship with KAIT8, where he got to help reporters with camera logistics. Rodgers was even assigned to aid in a story covering robotics in medicine. 

“I went with reporters, set up their cameras and everything,” Rodgers said. “One of the stories that we got to cover was doctors using robotics in surgeries. We interviewed a surgeon who was using that, and we got to sit there and watch her.

“It was VR. She put her hands in there and moved around these robotic arms. It was such a cool experience. We even got to wear the scrubs and everything.”

Rodgers recently won three Arkansas College Media Awards for his work. 

“I got first place for a television feature, got second place for sports reporting and then third place for news reporting,” Rodgers said. 

Outside of journalism, Rodney also pioneered the RSO 1825 Central, a faith-based group serving UCA faculty, staff and students. 

“Our college pastor at Central Baptist Church has been trying to get an RSO started over here at UCA for three years,” Rogers said. “What we wanted was to serve not just the students, but faculty and staff,” Rogers said. “We wanted to do more stuff on campus.”

Rodgers started attending Central Baptist Church after transferring, which is an integral part of his community. 

“One of my priorities was finding a home church that I was comfortable going to, and that was immediately Central Baptist Church,” Rodgers said. “It was so welcoming. Central Baptist was like immediately, just kind. I walked into the church, and I was greeted like I had been going there forever.” 

Michael Treat, a pastor at Central Baptist Church, invited Rodgers to their college bible study, where Rodgers made connections for life. 

“I asked where the college group was. I was there an hour early because I didn’t know when it started, and I got to sit there and talk with Michael Treat for an hour before. He introduced me to some people that were going there. Now we’re best friends. I’m actually going to be one of their groomsmen.” 

When Rodgers finds a spare moment, he says he enjoys spending time playing the Pokemon card game and spending time with his church, friends and family.