Lights, camera, action: CSULB goes live

"Good Morning America's" Garth Kemp wakes students Thursday morning during a live broadcast for "College Week." Tracey Roman/ Online Forty-Niner

 

By L'Oreal Battistelli
Online Forty-Niner
City Editor

Lights beamed and cameras rolled as Cal State Long Beach welcomed "Good Morning America" and its host, Garth Kemp, to The Pyramid early Thursday morning for a live broadcast.

CSULB's cheer squad, dance squad, several students from President Maxson's Scholar's Program and the men's volleyball team met in the early morning to smile for the camera, clown around and have a good time.

A student wearing a wig basked in the early morning mist with a hand-held sun reflector. Male students weight-lifted. CSULB student, Kevin Cape, barbecued donuts.

"It was so much fun," cheer team member, Katherine Covellone said.

"[The] highlight for me was hitting our stunts and looking amazing up there. We were excited to show a little bit of what we can do."

Cal State Long Beach was selected to participate in "Good Morning America's" Second Annual College Week along with UC Irvine, Loyola Merrimount, CSU Northridge and the University of Redlands.

Last year, "Good Morning America" added the College Week segment to their programming schedule and began its quest for colleges.

"We started this last year on a whim," Kemp said.

The fun and excitement garnered from the students they visited encouraged "Good Morning America" to make it an annual event.

This year, "Good Morning America" wanted to highlight a school in this area and CSULB was a "natural choice."

"This was a lot more Southern Californian nutty," Kemp said. "A lot more locals [attended]. It was definitely the nuttiest school I've gone to yet."