Scene Magazine | Winter 2021
The eager visage of Matt Veto '04 was as comfortably familiar as an old ballcap during his undergraduate days.
Busy Bee? You bet. Veto simultaneously served St. Ambrose as the sports director for SAU-TV and KALA-FM radio, and as the Editor-In-Chief of The Buzz student newspaper.
All of that practical experience quickly led to an award-winning career as a multimedia journalist. His extensive experience in the SAU Communications Department also left Veto wanting to try something more.
"I can remember in 2011 when Stephanie asked before we got married, 'What do you want to do?'" said Veto, then a local sportswriter in his native Moline, Illinois, where his now wife, the former Stephanie Makosky, also worked as a photographer.
"I liked what I did, but there were frustrations, along with a lot of nights, weekends, and holidays - and Steph was running the same schedule. So, it was time to try and have some normalcy.
"I just kept reflecting back to SAU and the best time in my life. So, I said, 'I want to be a student newspaper advisor at a Division I university and teach entry level courses to journalism students.' And that is exactly what I'm doing now. All my experiences from SAU helped me find my dream job."
Since earning a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Missouri in 2013, Veto has taught a variety of writing and multimedia classes at Pennsylvania's 7,000-student Lehigh University while also serving as the faculty adviser of The Brown and White.
In the latter role, Veto has seen his staff swell to 160 students this fall, which is larger than most newspapers in and outside of academia.
"That is an embarrassment of riches," Veto admitted. "I know it is not like that everywhere. I'm truly fortunate and I take that as a good sign for the future of journalism.
"I hate hearing that phrase, ‘Journalism is dying,'" the proud educator added. "To be sure, there are mediums struggling but journalism is alive and well and will be consumed on different platforms for the rest of time."
Matt Veto '04
"...I said, 'I want to be a student newspaper advisor at a Division I university and teach entry level courses to journalism students.' And that is exactly what I'm doing now. All my experiences from SAU helped me find my dream job."
Veto caught the teaching bug as an SAU upperclassman, helping train his underclass successors. SAU instructors included Mass Comm mentor and Buzz adviser Alan Sivell, who insisted the many media "sports guys" SAU has produced over the years were well-rounded writers and reporters.
"Veto was like that kid I could never raise on my own because he was so good," said Sivell, a clinical assistant professor who will end a 34-year teaching career at St. Ambrose when he retires this coming spring.
"Matt was a terrific student, but he was also a nice kid and he got along with everybody and inspired others. He had this great leadership quality. So as a sophomore, I immediately thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy should be the Editor of The Buzz,' even though up until that time, it had only been seniors."
What fit Veto so well as an SAU student - one-on-one instruction and an earnest receptiveness to trying new ideas - are the same principles Veto's teaching hat now hangs on.
"The best part of SAU is you could get your hands into everything. It allowed me to be a multimedia journalist before that was even a term," said Veto who earned his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Radio/TV.
The experiential opportunities in SAU journalism set the small program apart, he said.
"I liked doing everything. I liked doing stuff in TV with Duke (Don Schneider '76). I liked being involved in radio with Dave (Baker '88). And Sivell had me working on the (newspaper)," he noted. "So, I left SAU with more clips, tape, and airtime than anybody who had gone to a bigger, more traditional journalism school where you weren't touching a camera until your junior year at the earliest and you certainly weren't doing football play-by-play the first weekend of your freshman year, like I did."
His SAU experiences have been equally formative as Veto stepped to the front of a classroom.
"There's no question observing Alan and Duke and Dave - and how much they love their students and are so passionate about what they do - you can't help but want to be like that and want those same things," he said.
-Steve Tappa '91
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