INTEGRATED MEDIA ALUM SKYLER STEVER SHARED HIS STORY

Skyler Stever, the creative director for KGW-TV in Portland, came in one morning to speak to my Digital Video Production class at MHCC, and I could not be more excited that morning.

My instructor, Blakesley Clapp, told us that Stever had completed the very same Integrated Media program we were participating in, which only made me more interested to hear what he had to share with the class.

He shared a ton of great insights about working in television broadcasting. But he left me wanting to know more about him. I asked if he would be interested in having me write an alumni profile about him, and he said yes.

Skyler was raised by hippie parents in Hood River, Oregon, after the family had relocated from Montana in 1988. His parents wanted the family to live an “off-grid” lifestyle – which meant that his family did not have running water or even electricity. The first TV the family ever had would be hooked up to a car battery that his dad would pull out of the car just so they could catch some Canadian TV stations.

Stever told me that growing up in these conditions allowed him to greatly appreciate creature comforts later in life a lot more.

After graduating from Hood River Valley High School, Skyler moved to Eugene to earn some general education credits and figure some things out. And while flipping pizzas at the mall he ended up meeting his wife-to-be. He spent a couple of years searching for something new until he realized his passion for TV and decided to transfer to MHCC to attend the film production program offered here at the time.

Image provided by Skyler Stever

MHCC had the best program for film production at the time and Stever took to it like a fish to water, he said. It is funny to me because he told me that when he met IM instructor JD Kiggins here, he quickly felt like he was in the right place. Kiggins, still busy teaching many Mt. Hood classes, had a funny, honest, and great passion for visual storytelling and technology that helped to inspire him.

It was great to hear an instructor I will soon be taught by left such an impression on a pupil that I am writing about it now, perhaps 15 years later.

After graduating from MHCC, Stever got an internship at KOIN-TV in Portland. Eventually he worked his way up the ranks at KGW. He told me that he had done pretty much every production role between intern and his current one of creative director – running promotions, advertisements and more.

I have been on a video set with Skyler, and the director needed someone to operate a boom microphone. Skyler didn’t hesitate, and you could tell by the way he handled the equipment it wasn’t his first time wrangling a boom microphone – you could tell the gear was an extension of his arms, not just something he was holding.

It has been awesome meeting Skyler and getting to know him. It’s very inspirational that someone who walked the path I currently am is able to make such a positive impact on the community with the tools my classmates and I are learning.