After falling in love with media production at West Deptford High School in New Jersey, Niccolas Uff, Class of 2022, chose to attend Temple to pursue his dream of becoming a television producer. Now, he’s majoring in media studies and production at Klein College of Media and Communication. 

“I knew that I wanted to go to a school with a great journalism/media studies program,” said Uff. “That’s why I chose Temple.” He is currently interning in the booking department of CBS This Morning, where he works with producers as they guide guests through the process of being interviewed on the show. For Uff, this internship is his dream come true.

It’s also an opportunity that he has worked hard to earn. When Uff arrived on Temple’s campus as a first-year student, he wasted no time. He took every opportunity to learn, honed his skills as a photographer and a writer, and worked his way up to be a producer for Temple Update, the university’s weekly news broadcast. 

“I learned very quickly because one of the advantages of Temple—specifically Klein College—is that they allow you to get involved when you’re a freshman and that’s different from a lot of other schools that I applied to,” said Uff.

Uff wears many hats on campus and credits his early activities at Temple with preparing him for the positions he now holds, including that of peer mentor to 12 first-year students. “I am a full-time student; I’m teaching a course; I’m interning 24 hours a week; I’m a producer for Temple Update; I have multiple student jobs,” he said. “Pretty much, every hour of my day is accounted for every single week.”

All of these roles and responsibilities have been the perfect proving ground for Uff who, last year, landed his first internship with CBS. The internship would have taken him to Washington, D.C., to work at either CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell or Face the Nation, but when the COVID-19 pandemic set in, it transitioned into an online summer program. He instead participated in workshops with producers and served as a multimedia journalist. “We got to produce news packages that had the possibility to be aired on CBS News socials,” Uff said. “That means that we’re shooting it, we’re reporting it, we’re producing it all ourselves.”

He is most proud of a piece he did on Independence Hall being closed on the Fourth of July because of the pandemic. “I’m like a practitioner at the internship,” he said. “I’m practicing what they’re teaching me at Temple.”

This semester’s internship with CBS would have taken Uff to New York City to work in the world of morning news, but due to the pandemic’s continued presence, his internship, like many of his classes, was being conducted remotely. This time, however, going virtual opened up unexpected opportunities. Uff’s assignment to the booking department meant that he was no longer just doing workshops and producing content: he had days filled with obligations. “I’m doing more than what I think I’d be doing in person because I have access to so many things online—so many resources and assets of CBS News that I wouldn’t normally have as an intern. It’s incredible!”

As an intern, Uff pitches story ideas in daily editorial meetings where he rubs virtual elbows with the morning news anchors, but most of his time is spent interviewing guests who are scheduled to appear on the show. While he admits that it’s fun to work with big names, he finds that the stories about ordinary people are just as compelling. Recently, Uff worked on the team that booked a hiker who had been revived by doctors after having been pronounced dead from a climbing accident on Mt. Rainier. Closer to his own experience, Uff booked the president of Indiana University on the show to discuss how schools are responding to a spike in COVID-19 cases. 

With this internship, Uff is building on the foundation laid by his education at Temple and finds inspiration in the university’s alumni. 

“Seeing what they’re doing and knowing that they learned so much of what they know and do from Klein College is really cool. I think it gives us all the extra push forward to really do well,” he said.

To learn more about Uff and his internship experience, check out his Instagram takeover.