All In A Days Work

By Deidre Thompson


Chaotic and hectic are only a few words that describe the atmosphere in which Marisa M. White works. At first glance the office of Bronx Net Television is a place, in which no one seems to have time, but it is actually the complete opposite. The office is a family and at the center of it is the motherly White, according to Marcelo Mindez, colleague and program manager at the station.

The Intern Coordinator of Bronx Net Television, White was born on September 29, 1966, to a working class family. They lived in the Fordham section of the Bronx. Her love of books and media began with her mother. I think I get my love of the written word and beautiful camera work from her. she said. White initially started as an English major at Iona College, then transferred to Fordham University and began taking media classes. She said that Iona was not very stimulating but that changed as soon as she got to Fordham. It [Fordham University] was just a very studious, very academic [place]. said White about her alma mater.

White also attributes her early love of media and the camera to her uncle, a cameraman, who used to travel to places like New Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and India. Once he asked her to assist him on a video shoot and she fell in love with the medium. From then on there was no turning back. While at Fordham, when she was in a psychology course, the professor asked a question that would change her initial plan to become an English teacher .He asked the class If youve been a teacher for 25 years what do you hope to have accomplished? She replied I wasnt sure if I wanted to be in a classroom for 25 years.

White began in the media business while in college and is quick to call it a tough and demanding business. Though she says its a tough and demanding job she clearly loves what she is doing. I enjoy being around the different kinds of people that T.V. brings. she says.

It is perhaps Whites own enjoyment of her job that makes her co-workers to think of her as the mother of the office. A number of her colleagues cannot pinpoint the bad qualities of Marisa White but one gave an answer. She is not able to go home sometimes. said Marcelo Mendez, laughing. Shes like my aunt or my sister said Daehoon Chung, an accountant at Bronx Net Television. She does all she can basically like a mother does and makes sure that everyone hired does their job. she said and also adds I havent seen any of her bad qualities honestly. said Bharati S. Kemraj, another of Whites colleagues.

Whites life however does not begin and end with her job at Bronx Net. She is also a professor of television production at Lehman College . Marisa comes from a news background and the focus she brings to her job at Bronx Net bridges that production experience with the educating and mentoring that is a part of our mission, said Michael Max Knobbe, executive director of Bronx Net Television. She is an actual mother of two children as well as thirty other interns and students she supervises.

I remember a saying my father had about parenting:" you should hold your child as you do a bar of soap: firmly, but gently. she said