05 | Broadcast Journalism and How a Liberal Arts Education Prepares You For It - with Toya Singh

Toya Singh | Broadcast Journalist & TV Anchor

Toya Singh graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2016. Since then, she carefully sought out the jobs that she felt would enrich her growth and help her reach her goals. From a coveted internship at NPR, to a News Anchor position at CNN-News18, Toya settled only for the best. Now, after two years at News18, she is taking another courageous plunge to explore the various ways in which news media can be made more engaging to a whole new generation through a venture of her own.

Arjun and Toya discuss just how invaluable her liberal arts education at Sarah Lawrence was and how it shaped her into the confident, empowered woman she is today. During this episode, you’ll learn that it’s not always the things you expect that define a successful college experience.

Episode Takeaways

Experience at Sarah Lawrence College (SLC)

It’s a magical place that taught her how to question and be a strong curious woman. She had to unlearn a lot of stuff from school, in a good way. At SLC, there are 10 students in a class compared to the huge class size at her brother’s college UCB where you can skip class and watch them online. SLC made her love learning. She remembers looking forward to showing up at class at 8am after spending 4 hours reading for it. She studied Jazz vocals, Economics, Middle Eastern politics - anything that she was curious about was available to her.

Tutoring System at SLC

There are 2 unique aspects to this. SLC follows a tutoring system where, from the first day you have a “don” or “parent figure" who will check in with you for all of your 4 years at the college. The second is your class professor. You take only 3 classes a semester and for every class you meet your professor every 2 weeks to discuss your specialised project. You meet one on one and they tell you what books to read for that project and you build a relationship with them. As a result, they get to know you really well and can write you excellent grad school letters of recommendation.

Career Prep at SLC

SLC’s goal is not to prepare you for a job. It’s a place you go to build your character and it’s a great place for learning. She had plenty of friends who did find jobs and earn money but that should not be your goal for choosing SLC. She was Class President there but did not have a job in hand when she graduated. That’s unlike UCB where they are already preparing you for a career in your first year. So it depends on your priorities - what you want out of your college.

Career Path to Broadcast Journalism (TV Anchor)

In college she did Jazz vocals and she was singing in high school too. She loved the feeling of being on stage and the energy of that communication. When she graduated from SLC she moved to Brooklyn and spent 6 months looking for a job and eventually got an internship at National Public Radio. The job taught her about the rigour and professionalism of a work environment in America. For their quiz program, she would spend a whole day researching the answer to one quiz question. Then, she worked for Discovery Channel and interned at Shark Tank. She loved working in media - but started missing India and the sense of community here. She also wanted to be in front of the camera. She came back to India in 2018 with the idea of using what she had learnt about media in the US. She had many chunks of unemployment in the US and India but she could afford that since she had the support of her parents. Her advice to students in similar positions is to use that privilege well and be as intellectually curious as possible during those periods. People pushed her to take up any job in any media company but she waited it out. The company she wanted to join was not ready to hire her. After 6 months of applying and waiting, she finally started with a few months of training as an anchor. A lot of time was spent on editorial work, which she didn’t find very engaging. However, she enjoyed anchoring for the first year and a half - she had to sleep at 8pm and wake up at 3:30 am to make it to Noida for the morning shift. She had to get her makeup done and then study the news and arguments for 3 hours before she got on air at 7am. For 2 years she had no social life. She quit this job just 10 days ago but is very happy with the decision as she is starting her own venture now.

Advice to Current Graduates

The inevitable is going to happen. Many days you will not know what’s going to happen. Try not to settle for any job you get just because it’s “comfortable". Once she got a job interview at Newsweek. They talked about how many digital hits she needed to get on her articles and that put her off. She had been unemployed for 3 months and made it through all the interview rounds but suddenly it clicked that she did not want to do this. You can’t compare being an anchor for one of India’s biggest channels to writing articles that don’t get you excited even if it’s for a big name magazine. She feels her job in India was worth it even though she did not have a social life working as the early morning anchor.

Her 3 Strengths

Persistence, Curiosity, Optimism

College Application Experience

She did it all online with Edbrand because she was in Manila. She remembers her essays were really cool. It was stimulating and frustrating at the same time. It was fun but she would not go through it again.

Advice to Current College Applicants

Indians tend to look for brand schools and which ones will lead to a job. But you need to find a college that also leaves you intellectually curious. Look into the lives of the colleges’ alumni to see if they inspire you. SLC is full of alum who are “renaissance” people  - Vera Wang for example who was a science student and then became a fashion designer is an example. These are people who are constantly reinventing themselves which appealed to her.

Her New Venture

While working as an anchor, she felt the news was not being presented in a way that so much of India was consuming - i.e. on their phones. There is so much scope for news on the internet. Privileged Indians are not involved enough in what’s going on in India but it’s not their fault since the news is not being presented to them in an exciting format. She wants to spend the next 3 months with what media can look like. She wants to play around with other formats and try a variety of them. It’s a privilege to sit at home and afford to try this. She has launched her first episode on Youtube for millennials which is philosophical and about current affairs. But now she wants to create something newsy.