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Jill Marvin ’04 had her first job as a producer when she was seven years old.
“I remember being on a ski trip and trying to make a movie. I got so irritated with my dad for getting in the way of my shot,” she jokes.
Today, Marvin produces television segments for a program of USA Today called “USA Live.” Her early interest in producing reemerged during her years at Lafayette. It was during a one-day externship at USA Today that she discovered that this was career path she wanted to follow.
“I met the anchor there and was instantly hooked,” she says.
Marvin continued to pursue classes in her major of international affairs, however.
“I thought television was so unattainable,” she explains.
And she was enjoying her classes in international affairs. She credits Ilan Peleg, Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law, with launching her into the major.
“He was particularly inspiring because of his passion,” she says. “Every class was like watching a documentary. I studied harder for his class than any other because he so motivated me.”
An internship in foreign affairs finally convinced Marvin that she had to follow her first love of television.
“My job is to produce the morning television segment,” she says. “We choose stories that have appeared in USA Today and we produce segments on them that we distribute to various television stations. We also do the Business Connection segment for the Weather Channel. It is a business travel piece that airs five to six times a day.”
Marvin’s other love is sports. She recalls, “I played four varsity sports in high school. I didn’t know a world without athletics.”
At Lafayette Marvin played lacrosse. She believes that the lessons she learned through that experience have provided the fortitude she has needed to succeed in her career.
“Sports in college is a job,” she says. “You have to be determined and responsible to fit it in. Waking up at 6 a.m. to practice in the cold requires dedication. You have to hustle and give it your all. You get out of it what you put into it. These are all lessons I have used in my job to get where I am.”
“I learned about dedication from my family as well. They would drive four hours to come watch me play every single game, sometimes standing through rain, and turn around and drive four hours home. It showed me how much they supported me,” she says.
Marvin has used the same level of dedication to work her way up through a continuous stream of new job responsibilities.
“What’s great about USA Live is that it is very small, and so I am exposed to everything,” she says. “The philosophy is that you will have greater credibility if you know what goes into all the aspects of our final product.”
“When I began writing stories, it was thrilling to hear what I wrote read over the television to millions of viewers,” she continues. “Then they began to allow me to find video and go out on interviews and I was equally thrilled to realize the same viewers were seeing my work. When I began producing I became responsible for much more – coordinating with various stations, as well as talking to other anchors.”
The ultimate thrill for Marvin was her recent stint filling in for an anchor who was on vacation. She had been practicing in front of the camera, but was unprepared for what it was really like.
“You begin at 5:45 a.m. sitting in a room all alone. But you are interacting with various other people at other sites. For five hours you have to pretend there is a group of people watching you. It is exhausting. My mouth actually hurt from smiling,” she says. “The unscripted banter at the end is the hardest, because the pressure of wondering how your comments will be received makes you read too much into every pause.”
But she loved it and would have it no other way. She feels she learned an incredible amount through the experience.
“I had to learn how to use my voice in a way that did not come across as just reading. You’d be surprised how much pre-thought goes into each word as you try to convey your credibility, your personality, and sell your story through the way in which you speak. The stories are all over the map, from a movie review, to something about the war, on to something else. You learn to be extremely flexible in moving from one emotion to the next,” she says.
Marvin notes that she still has not had what she calls her “six-year old moment” of jumping up and down to celebrate what she was given the chance to do. The reality of it hasn’t hit her yet. Her goal of trying to absorb everything possible has been so engrossing that she has little time to relish one achievement before having to focus completely on the next goal. It is what she loves most about the job.