YCP Road Crew member won’t let any opportunity pass her by

It was cold, dark, and painfully early in the morning, but Arianna Keller and her fellow YCP Road Crew members came prepared. They layered up in green and white, stuck foot warmers in their socks and shoved hand warmers in their pockets. Then, they waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, the camera turned to them. There they were, on national television right outside of The Today Show in New York City, screaming their lungs out and holding signs for York College of Pennsylvania. It was just one of three weeks of adventures Arianna and her fellow crew members will never forget.

Finding her place

York College was near the bottom of Arianna’s top picks for schools—until she visited the campus. “I made friends within the first day of being here,” she says. “The entire environment is the exact kind of thing that I wanted in a place that I’m going to be spending most of my time at.”

In high school, she didn’t do any extracurriculars besides sports, but at York College, she was quickly drawn into various clubs and activities. Now in her junior year, she’s on the executive board in her sorority, where she also does stepping—rhythmic stomping and clapping—and strolling—choreographed line dancing. She’s also a student alumni ambassador, an orientation leader, and she’s on the executive board of U.N.I.T.Y, a club that celebrates diversity and community outreach.

YCP Road Crew

One of her favorite extracurriculars is the YCP Road Crew. You really get to know a person when you’re stuck in a car with them for three weeks, she says. So, when Arianna and her fellow crew members spent their winter break last year touring around the northeast, they went from strangers to good friends pretty fast.

But it wasn’t just her peers she formed connections with. Everywhere they went—Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York—they met York College alumni. They visited workplaces and went to dinners together. “We got to experience so many things,” Arianna says. “It may have taken up my whole break, but it was completely worth it.”

The most valuable part for Arianna was the connections she made with the alumni. “There are people I could contact right now, and they’d welcome me with open arms,” she says.

This year, the YCP Road Crew is headed back out, hitting up stops like the Pentagon, the Capitol, and the set of a Comedy Central show. And, of course, they’re going back to The Today Show. “I cannot wait,” Arianna says.

A passion for storytelling

The opportunity with The Today Show is one of the great hands-on experiences benefitting Arianna. As a member of the YCP Road Crew and a Mass Communication major, it’s not really surprising that Arianna loved showing her Spartan spirit and being on television. As a kid, she watched a ton of TV. “I always was captivated by the television screen,” she says. 

Her YCP video class is her favorite, hands down. “Sometimes I feel like I’m not even in class because it’s fun,” she says. “I’m having fun doing it.” It’s the storytelling and the creativity in filmmaking that Arianna loves. She dreams of writing and directing her own films in Hollywood. “I want to do for someone else what was done for me,” she says. “I want to give someone else that shiny screen that they can look at and think of themselves in that situation.” 

The amazing opportunities Arianna has embraced at York College from day one and the strong connections she has forged have motivated her and built her confidence. As a junior, she can't wait to benefit from even more opportunities.