Housatonic Valley News

Western Connecticut State University issued the following announcement on March 9.

DANBURY, Connecticut — Western Connecticut State University recently  has been ranked one of the best value universities in the state of  Connecticut. WCSU holds the sixth spot on the list, which compared 23  schools in the state. PayScale,  the company that compiled the list, indicated that “those who choose to  go to school in the Constitution State tend to earn big after  graduation.”

PayScale’s information is crowd-sourced via extensive surveying and  data collection from their business subscribers, then standardized and  matched using proprietary algorithms and finally analyzed and reported  on. As a result, the site compiled a list of the Connecticut universities that offer the best value to those who enroll. The most important  factor on this list is Return on Investment (ROI), which indicates “the  amount of money you can expect to earn 20 years after getting your  degree from a specific school.”

At $395,000, WCSU holds the sixth highest 20-year net ROI out of the  23 ranked universities in Connecticut. WCSU’s annual ROI is currently  8%, which makes it tied for the highest in-state institution in that  category. WCSU ranks higher in 20-year net ROI than any other  Connecticut state (CSCU) university.

Jacob Wycoff at work at WBZ-Boston.

In addition to the financial benefits, WCSU also provides a wealth of opportunities to its students and graduates. Just ask Jacob Wycoff,  who benefitted from a scholarship, several internships, service and  networking opportunities — and ultimately met his wife through some  university connections.

“Before I graduated from high school, my parents and I sat at our  northeastern Ohio dining room table with a big AAA map,” Wycoff said.  “We drew a circle, the center of which represented about seven hours or  less of travel from my home. Within that circle, there were seven  schools that offered meteorology. I visited each campus and got accepted  to all, but only truly fell in love with WestConn. I knew that at WCSU,  I wouldn’t just be a number in a big program … rather, I’d be a name  and a face in a small program.”

Along with his acceptance to WCSU, Wycoff received a scholarship to  cover his first-year out-of-state tuition. After his freshman year, he  worked several on-campus jobs, including in the Financial Aid office and  as a resident assistant, which helped cover most of his tuition. “I  consider myself incredibly fortunate to graduate with very little  student loan debt,” he said.

Wycoff’s interest in meteorology began at a very young age. “Some of  my earliest memories are building backyard weather stations with plastic  cups for a rain gauge and simply looking up to marvel nature,” he  said. “My passion for weather was solidified during the Blizzard of  1993. The small town I grew up in got 20+ inches of snow, and I remember  as a 7-year-old being in awe. After the snow melted, I spent hours at  the library checking out every weather book I could find.”

A dozen years later, Wycoff was in a meteorology class in WCSU’s  White Hall, participating in a map discussion about the upcoming  forecast. “All eyes were drawn to Hurricane Katrina, at the time a  massive, Category 5 storm in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico,” Wycoff  said. “I vividly recall a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach,  knowing this would be a life-changing moment for so many along the  Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast. On Aug. 29, 2005, Katrina made  landfall and the Mississippi coastline experienced a storm surge that  hadn’t been seen since Hurricane Camille.”

Jacob Wycoff and other Newman Club members during their trip to Biloxi, Mississippi, post-Katrina.

The following Spring Break, in 2006, Wycoff was one of seven WCSU  students who traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi, to aid in the relief  effort through a trip organized by the campus Newman Center.

“For the first time I can remember, I got to see the true power and  responsibility that meteorologists have,” Wycoff said. “I got to see how  a satellite image of a powerful storm translated to incredible damage  on the ground. I understood the role of precise forecasts and clear  communication.”

In addition to his participation in service work like the Newman  Center trip, Wycoff played football his freshman year and was a member  of the Meteorology Club and Sigma Chi. He also acquired hands-on  experience that aided him on his career path.

“During my time at WCSU, I was able to do three separate  internships,” Wycoff said. “One in D.C., one in Baltimore, and one in  New Haven at NewsChannel 8. Two of those internships used a program  called WeatherBug in their  weathercast, so I got a chance to test drive the software. Upon  graduation, I applied to WeatherBug for a role there, using references I  gained during my internship. I ended up getting the position and began  working as a meteorologist in Germantown, Maryland. My role was to work  closely with 100+ TV station partners using the WeatherBug software.”

Jacob Wycoff doing a story with the U.S. Coast Guard in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, in April 2021.

Wycoff said that part of being in a small department at WCSU meant he  knew everyone in the program. One of those people was Tim Pandajis, a  fellow WCSU meteorology graduate who also worked at a TV station in  Maryland. Pandajis introduced him to reporter Sujata Jain, who later  became Wycoff’s wife.

The Wycoffs moved back to Connecticut when Sujata took a position at  Channel 3 – WFSB. Jacob accepted his first full-time TV meteorology job  at WesternMassNews in Springfield a few months later. That caught the  eye of the executive weather producer at WBZ-TV in Boston, a station Wycoff had managed while at WeatherBug. Wycoff  freelanced for WBZ while working at WesternMassNews for about 3.5 years  until September 2020, when he was offered a permanent position with the  CBS Boston team.

A dozen years after graduating from WCSU, Wycoff reflects on the  decision that began at his Ohio kitchen table. “My life would be  completely different had I not gone to WestConn — from my wife and kids  to my career,” he said. “I am incredibly grateful for the path I’ve been  able to follow.”

That’s some return on investment.

Western Connecticut  State University changes lives by providing all students with a  high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals,  scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To  be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding  teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in  a meaningful way.

Original source can be found here.