Student voice of HokieCast, Emily Trexler, helps students stay informed

Emily Trexler of Chantilly, Va., a senior majoring in marketing in the Pamplin College of Business, started out the beginning of her sophomore year as a transfer student from James Madison University, and now her voice is standing out at Virginia Tech as the HokieCast intern.

Trexler says she saw a posting for the HokieCast internship in the beginning of this fall semester and her advisor encouraged her to apply. HokieCast is Virginia Tech’s very own podcast that is made by students for students. Each segment is about three to five minutes long and it’s updated weekly, every Monday by noon.

Trexler says that it takes her about an hour to research the material she wants to include in each podcast. She looks for different activities around campus that she thinks students should be informed about, including community service and fundraising events. She says that she consults several different sources, including the Virginia Tech event calendar and her own Facebook account in order to reach out to as many students as possible.  

She will then record the podcast and edit it until she is happy with it. “It’s different than anything I have done before. It’s really cool!” Trexler bubbly adds about the process.  She says she’s out as early as 11:30 a.m.  and ready to start her day as a full-time student.

Because of Trexler’s marketing background, the more she is involved in Visual and Broadcast Communications, the more they are challenging her in other areas than just HokieCast. She now a part of weekly meetings helping out with Virginia Tech’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts. Trexler says she is trying to think of things that whould like to see as a student. One of her ideas was have random facts about Virginia Tech on Twitter. She said they looked her and then went, “Great, now go do it.”

Being a Hokie is more than just having great ideas, it is also setting them into motion. As a marketing student, Trexler says her eyes are also on the number of HokieCast listeners and getting those numbers higher.

“That’s one reason they were happy to have a marketing student, that I could help them with that kind of stuff,” Trexler adds. In the past she has also been a social networking analyst and senior intern with Jobfox Inc., just another set of skills and experience that she is able to bring to the table for this internship.

When Trexler isn’t spending her time in the classroom or recording information about football games, she says she is heavily involved in the sales and marketing fraternity, Pi Sigma Epsilon. This past induction season she was also the director of recruitment. This was the first semester that they had that position, and she helped to increase numbers from 15 to 23.

Trexler says arriving here at Virginia Tech as a sophomore was unnerving. She said she wanted something that made her feel connected to the school, and she needed it immediately. Pi Sigma Epsilon was the organization she found that worked for her. Trexler says, “Getting involved was the best thing I could have done.” She recommends that for all Virginia Tech students, not just transfers or first-year students.

Stay connected with Virginia Tech and listen to Emily on HokieCast.