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Weber State University, students highlighted in Amazon Prime show

By Rob Nielsen - | Oct 9, 2023

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

The Weber State University campus in Ogden is pictured Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023.

OGDEN — An Amazon Prime show is set to highlight Weber State University, and the public is invited to preview it.

Recently, the Amazon Prime series “The College Tour” filmed at WSU’s Ogden campus and the episode is set to premier in town on Tuesday.

WSU Senior Admissions Counselor Sarah Winder told the Standard-Examiner a little about the show and the experience of having the crew film on campus.

In the show, she said, “They go around doing interviews, explore different college campuses and turn them into hourlong episodes.”

She said WSU jumped at the chance when Amazon reached out to the school about being featured in the series.

“It’s a really great opportunity for people outside of Utah — or even people in Utah — to learn more about Weber,” she said. “They filmed it earlier this spring, so right before graduation for our students. They had a lot of students involved in the process and interviewed and followed the pathway of a couple different students.”

Additionally, interviews were done with different departments and officials on campus.

According to Winder, the main focus was on five students while others helped out with the filming process.

Among the students who participated is Isaac Staszkow — a WSU junior who is double-majoring in political science and communications.

“One of the media people from Weber State reached out to me asking me if I wanted to try and get involved,” he said. “They thought I’d have a good story to tell, so I reached out, got my application and they reached out a couple weeks later saying I was on board.”

He said the experience of filming could be a bit tedious but was enjoyable.

“It was a little stressful to have to memorize lines and have to be all prepped,” he said. “But it was still a lot of fun. They had us pick out a couple of outfits that we’d wear during filming and then they had us memorize a little 300-word script that we would read into the camera. … The camera guys were amazing. All of the filming crew were super helpful. Even when you would mess up a line, they would still be there to help you fix it.”

Staszkow said production of his parts faced some unique challenges.

“A lot of the filming for me was right in front of Wildcat Village, which is oftentimes one of the flyover areas for the jets from Hill Air Force Base,” he said. “That was one of our biggest struggles — (trying) to find a three minute window of sorts where there wasn’t a jet flying over us every two seconds messing with the audio.”

He said he was very proud to be a part of the production.

“I thought it was an amazing experience to give back to Weber State — a university that’s given me a lot,” he said.

Winder said she’s excited for the potential exposure the episode brings to the school.

“I went to Weber State for my undergraduate (degree) and I often feel like Weber State is a hidden gem,” she said. “It’s really great for people to learn about Weber, especially since COVID-19. There have been a lot more opportunities to do things remote or virtually, but this is a great way for people to learn about it from inside of their homes watching TV.”

A premier event has been set up for the episode at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Peery’s Egyptian Theater. The event is open to the public, but attendees must register for tickets at https://bit.ly/3tnB8JY. There will also be a scholarship raffle for high school seniors in the amount of $2,000.

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