One of the most obvious characteristics of being a Villanova student or alum is the school pride, a sense of nationalism on a university-based scale. While this pride is evident at any sporting event, with the crowd inevitably dressed in blue and white, it is also ingrained in our daily lives, how we carry ourselves.

This is what brings opportunities such as the trip to Turner Broadcasting in New York City, to us in Villanova, Pennsylvania. The Villanova blood that runs through our veins connects us to other Wildcats across the world in a genetic network that allows us to take opportunities such as this. As a Communication student, I jumped on the opportunity to meet Villanova alumni that had succeeded in my own field while also getting a taste of what working in a Communication-related field would be like.

While Turner itself is extremely impressive, and the connections I made on the trip are ones I hope to preserve and retain for a lifetime, I found the trip to be most of all a reflection of what Villanova strives to be as a university, making the experience an opportunity for self-reflection on the very home I have established here at school.

To see a building bustling and operating at the highest levels of efficiency, mass collaboration to produce group success is a testament to the skills we build in the classroom. Entering a CNN newsroom and seeing the grandiose space alive with the sound of conversation, writers attacking their keyboards, and partners helping each other meet deadlines reflects the environments we see every day in the library or at The Exchange.

Turner Broadcasting is an extremely large company but is part of Warner Media, an even larger company that includes both Warner Bros. and HBO in addition to Turner. Turner Broadcasting is thus one part of the trinity of Warner Media, diminishing the theoretical scope it possesses. However, entering the building and seeing the way each and every individual operates within it would counter any negative expectations that would come from a group working under the umbrella of another group.

The workers are innovative, the environment is modern, and everything is engineered for efficiency, success and modernity. And thus, even while hours away in a city very much foreign from our idealistic environment here in Pennsylvania, I saw my world present in the skyscraper.

Turner employs many Villanova graduates, and I met many during my few hours in New York City, but this was not what made me see Villanova reflected in Turner Broadcasting. Both our school and the company strive for modernity and achievement and both engineer their respective environments so each student or worker can become what they are not yet.

Seeing Father Peter’s words and the identity of the school I love reflected there in New York City showed me that although I will graduate from this school and leave Villanova, Pennsylvania behind at some point, there will always be a home away from this home somewhere else in the world, somewhere where I can see the identity of my school ingrained in everyday life just as it is here on campus.