Evan Jaenichen, FCRH `20, will be leaving Fordham in May with a very different career path than the one he envisioned a couple of years ago.

Jaenichen, originally from Long Island, wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do entering college. He initially wanted to become a physician’s assistant or physical therapist.

He planned on joining the pre-med program but decided against it because he knew he ultimately wouldn’t be interested.
“I had worked with a physical therapist that summer, and while I enjoyed it at times, it was not something I could have seen myself pursuing,” Jaenichen says.

So, in his sophomore year, Jaenichen was back at square one. In February 2018, he chose new media and digital design as his major, but he still didn’t know what he wanted to do or where he wanted to go with said major.

He took a philosophical ethics class his senior year and happened to meet Charlie Maisano, FCRH `20, who is currently the sports manager at WFUV.

The two became friends, and Jaenichen wandered into a new passion in just about the last way you could imagine: watching a Mets game on his laptop. “Charlie and I talked, and eventually he told me about all of the cool stuff WFUV students get to do, which I never really knew about. So I basically said, ‘What the hell!’ and signed up for the trainee program the following semester, since it sort of pertained to my major and I love sports.”
Armed with this knowledge and sudden change of direction, Jaenichen got to work, involving himself in podcasts, beat reporting and production at the station.

Soon, he became a WFUV beat reporter for NYCFC, one of two local Major League Soccer teams. He also got involved in video training at the station and, due to his proficiency in that medium, was named WFUV Sports’ video coordinator this past April.

In the span of less than a year, he went from questioning his future to creating it.

“I would have to say that the most rewarding part of working there is the process of completing a daunting project, and then getting to see the final product,” he says. “The station has made me more of a perfectionist, and in many rights, I attribute that to both Charlie and Bob [Ahrens, WFUV Sports’ executive producer.] I’m sure most students would say the same about working on any project with Bob Ahrens however, the end product is very rewarding. And you get to learn so much!”

One of those daunting projects was a July trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., where he got to witness the Baseball Hall of Fame induction of former Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, the first unanimous inductee in the Hall’s history. His latest undertaking is videography for Fordham Football, posting highlights of the game along with WFUV’s radio calls.

Jaenichen is having a good time with what he is doing right now, but in eight months, he’ll be launched into the real world with the rest of the class of 2020. No matter how accomplished your college career is, graduating is bound to come with anxiety and concern. Nonetheless, Jaenichen has a far better idea of what he wants to do than he did just over a year ago.

“After graduation, I would love to work in sports in pretty much any capacity,” he says. “One thing that I have really found a passion for is video production, especially special projects that involve a degree of thinking and foresight. In that respect, it would be really cool to work somewhere that I can be creative with video production, or even just be involved in live production, as it is also a kind of art in its own right.”

No matter what he does, the senior just wants to have fun and be happy. “Overall, I am just looking for something I can find enjoyment out of,” Jaenichen says.

Jaenichen has found his direction and his passion. He has come a long way from watching the Mets in philosophical ethics.