Andreas Copes has been preparing to attend Temple University for some time now. After spending two years at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), he officially begins at Temple as a communication studies student at Klein College of Media and Communication in the fall. For now, he is sharing his enthusiasm for journalism by practicing and creating meaningful media and taking a continuing studies course online to stay on track.
When Copes emigrated to the United States from Germany in 2017, he initially wanted to study anthropology. But his plans took a turn when his experience at CCP convinced him otherwise and steered him toward journalism. In addition to serving as the public relations officer for CCP’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa - the honor society for two-year college and academic programs - he decided to pursue media-related activities. He auditioned and was selected to host seasons six and seven of the CCPTV show Focal Point while running the station’s social media, plus he also interned with Philadelphia’s public broadcasting radio station WHYY. Outside of school, he started his own podcast titled Binoculars, which examines culture and societal relationships and is a culmination of the characteristics he values in media.
“I wanted to tell stories about different people,” he says. “I wanted to empower people by just telling stories of marginalized communities or just stories that you wouldn’t hear in the mainstream media.”
While at CCP, Copes was awarded a scholarship from the Independence Business Alliance - greater Philadelphia’s LGBTQ chamber of commerce - and was accepted into the Point Foundation’s Point Community College Program, which allows LGBTQ community college students to receive scholarships and mentorship from leaders in their field of study. Copes is grateful for the “queer family” he developed through the program, and these awards helped ease his transition to Templ. He hopes to establish a similarly strong network as he starts at the university.
Copes looks forward to participating in the many media opportunities Klein offers. Although he chose to major in communication studies because it gives him the flexibility to design his own course of scholastic action, he wants to keep journalism and storytelling at the forefront of his Temple experience.
Maiken Scott, KLN ‘97, the host of WHYY’s The Pulse and a Temple journalism alumna, is a friend of Copes’ and worked with him at WHYY on her show. She believes Klein will provide Copes the journalistic community he needs to make even more connections in the community.
“I think Andreas will fit right in at Temple because he’s very open and he loves meeting new people and he’s always willing to reach out when he needs help or when he’s interested in trying something,” Scott says. “And I think the Temple experience is what you make of it and the more you want out of the experience, the more you’re going to get. So I do think this is like a perfect environment for him. So I’m happy he chose Temple.”
Copes is happy that despite all of the changes forced upon the school due to COVID-19 concerns, the school is “doing a great job to make us feel, to make this feel, as normal as possible.” Nothing will quell his excitement toward attending the school he has come to admire.