From Campus News to breaking news

Selah Jacoway is driven to inform and connect her community. She’s a multimedia journalist at Valley News Live (KVLY). The Dragon broadcast journalism major and media analysis minor from Burnsville, Minnesota is seizing opportunities that are rare for journalism students. Selah will speak at the Spring 2025 undergraduate commencement ceremony. 

BS in Broadcast Journalism

Selah’s days start with morning pitch meetings, followed by interview setups, writing, filming, and crafting news packages. In the afternoon, she helps to shape the day’s newscasts and fills in as anchor for the Noon newscast on Fridays – a responsibility that rarely is earned by students.

“Anchoring is nerve-wracking,” she says. “You don’t get a second take. But I was vocal about wanting to do it, and they threw me right in. Now I’m growing every day — better cues, better articulation, and more confidence.”

That confidence started long before the internship. After transferring to Minnesota State Moorhead in pursuit of a true broadcast journalism
program, and a scholarship through the North Star Promise, Selah toured campus and immediately felt at home. “I felt like I was supposed to be here,” she says.

Her experience in Moorhead’s Campus News program, on the production team and as an anchor, gave her a major advantage. At Moorhead, journalism students don’t simply watch how a newsroom works – they live it. “What I do at Valley News is literally what I did in Campus News. It’s real-world training inside the classroom,” she says.

A big part of that classroom experience is thanks to Aaron Quanbeck, who leads the broadcast journalism program. He not only holds students accountable and helps them refine their skills, but also brings in news producers from stations across the region to critique student work. One of those visits gave Selah the opportunity to meet her future supervisor at KVLY.

“Aaron puts you in positions to succeed,” Selah says. “If your work isn’t great, he’ll kindly tell you and guide you to make it better.”

While at Moorhead, Selah was a two-time Eric Sevareid Award of Merit recipient, an Eric Sevareid First Place winner, and a Crystal Piller Award recipient, a Student Production award bestowed by the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

As she looks toward graduation in 2026, she is already ahead of the game — gaining the kind of experience some reporters don’t get until years into their careers.

“This program sets you up to be four steps ahead,” Selah says.

Fargo-Moorhead has been a great place for her to use her refined talents off-campus.

“Student gifts are appreciated and utilized in Fargo-Moorhead,” she says. “I feel seen and heard in this community. It builds you up and provides plenty of opportunities.”