Nathan Witt is a UT Tyler sophomore who was recently named Editor-In-Chief of the Patriot Talon student newspaper. He also manages a podcast for UT Tyler Radio and runs a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged youth in his home town of Mineola.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. We love UT Tyler’s student success stories, and today we get to share one of them. Our guest is the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of the UT Tyler Patriot Talent newspaper, Nathan Witt. Welcome.
Nathan Witt: Hey, Mike.
Mike Landess: So as a sophomore, let’s start off with the Patriot Talon. Why did you seek this position?
Nathan Witt: I guess once I spent a little time around the Talon, I realized what the opportunity there was. An opportunity I felt like was not being taken advantage of. I feel like The Talon really has the authority to be the voice of the student body, which is something that I feel like we’re missing right now. It was representation that I feel like the student body deserves. And so I kind of had this plan in my head. I spent all year in the ear of our outgoing Editor-in-Chief and was kind of like, “Hey, I think this should happen. I think we should do this.” So after spending about, you know, a year in his ear trying to help progress things, he suggested to me that I should apply. Spent some time thinking about it and went ahead and went for it.
Mike Landess: Now these days, any publication can’t just be a newspaper or a magazine. We live in a digital age.
Nathan Witt: Yeah. So that’s a heavy lean that we’re gonna take for this next year is into more of the multimedia side of things. We’ve got a student broadcast we’re bringing back, so we’re gonna do that. Very heavy focus on creating our content, our stories for our websites and stuff like that, that can be reformatted easily into social media content. That’s our demographic, which is college students. That’s where most of them are getting their news right now. So we want to find them where they’re at.
Mike Landess: Speaking of the digital age, I met you here at UT Tyler Radio as you prepared to help launch the first of what will be many faculty podcasts, “Ask Dr. Ross.” We’re talking about UT Tyler’s Dr. Catherine Ross, who’s been a guest on this program. What’s the podcast about? And how’s the program going so far?
Nathan Witt: Well, To answer that question backwards. It’s been awesome. It’s been a ton of fun, as much as it’s been eye-opening for me. But the podcast is really just trying to fill in the informational gaps that exist between students going from high school and into college. So it’s targeted toward students and parents who are either headed into college or new into college and just educating them on what the college experience really is like. Maybe some kind of tips and tricks they might want to know as they prepare or as they’re getting into their groove in college. And, you know, I have been to a few universities. I’ve been on the college road for a little second now, and I still learn new things every day. So there’s a lot of pertinent information in there and useful information.
Mike Landess: So tell me, what’s that like as a college sophomore trying to direct someone who is a doctor and teaching students your age and younger?
Nathan Witt: Yes. All the way along the line.
Mike Landess: Does that work pretty well? Is this like working with an auntie?
Nathan Witt: Well, we have a great relationship, Dr. Ross and I, but you know, she has many accolades. She is very accomplished in her career as a professor and an educator. So my role is to make sure I know the podcasting stuff. She knows the education stuff, and I’m really just there to help guide conversation a little bit, but mostly just adding my student perspective. And so she knows what she’s doing. She knows what she’s talking about, so, she makes my job easy.
Mike Landess: It’s nice to see the two of you bouncing off of each other. Now we have a podcast studio in place here at UT Tyler as a part of KVUT and UT Tyler Radio. We’re hoping to have that program expand, correct?
Nathan Witt: Yeah, absolutely. We want more podcasts. More student, more faculty, more community podcasts, everything we can get.
Mike Landess: We’re using BuzzSprout now and have the opportunity to reach an awful lot of people in a situation in which we weren’t able to do that 12 months ago.
Nathan Witt: If you have a cell phone, we can reach you now.
Mike Landess: Now you’ve been involved with a number of activities outside of your academic career here at UT Tyler. Tell us about “Flint and Steel,” the nonprofit you started in Mineola, your hometown.
Nathan Witt: So, that started in 2020. I was living on campus at a college in Dallas when the mandated lockdowns happened. I had to move back with my parents.
Mike Landess: COVID.
Nathan Witt: COVID. I had to move back with my parents, and I just realized in my hometown that there were a lot of people who we just weren’t giving them many options. My grandma would always tell me that boredom or idle hands is the workshop of the devil, right? And I think that’s what we wanted to address was that people just didn’t have opportunities to do anything with themselves, and they ended up in trouble. So we focus on youth and young adult support. So anywhere from around middle school age to a little past college life, probably late twenties, is what we focus on, and it’s all about providing resources and programs and opportunities. Our biggest thing is, we operate a skate park in Mineola. We have a muralist guild that has been partnering with our Wood County EDC really closely to cover the county. We’ve got 25 murals planned and paid for in the next year that’ll go up, all with local artists or partnerships with local artists. So it’s pretty cool.
Mike Landess: So where do you wanna be this time next year in your life and your career?
Nathan Witt: Still at UT Tyler. Still employed here at the radio station. So right now our skate park is wood, I hope. A year from today, I hope that we have concrete down. That’s a big, big goal.
Mike Landess: That’s Mineola.
Nathan Witt: Yeah, Mineola. Also in Mineola, we’re raising funds right now for a building. We’re calling it Art House Artistic Recreational Therapy House. And it’s like a free creator space. And right now we’re raising money for the renovations for that building where people can just come in and create whatever their heart desires, whether it’s digital art, physical art, or audio art, like podcasting. So I’d like to see that take a more physical form. And then here on campus, I wanna see the Patriot Talon have a a more visible presence on campus. I’d really like for us to hit the ground running next year and see some tangible change. My goal is six to eight podcasts for the radio station here in the next year. So that’s kind of where my numbers are at.
Mike Landess: Obviously, you’re a good example of someone who is doing things outside of the school.
Nathan Witt: Yeah.
Mike Landess: You’re doing things inside of the school and you’re a student. Do you have enough hours in the day to do all that?
Nathan Witt: It’s funny, I was actually just talking about that concept because I have probably reached the point where I’ve used my 24. You know, I don’t have any more. And so now it’s like, how do you maximize the efficiency of those 24? If anybody’s listening and they’re my age or, or maybe in my position where they’re kind of figuring out a path. I’m just obsessed with podcasting and just by being obsessed with podcasting and chasing that with my full heart. I ended up as the Editor-in-Chief of our media outlet here on campus and in a part-time position here for the radio station producing podcasts. So it’s opened doors, opportunities. It’s gotten me a job just pursuing something I cared about.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been UT Tyler Patriot Talent Editor-in-Chief, Nathan Whitt. To hear this interview again or to forward it, go to KVUT. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
