EAST LONGMEADOW – Kelsey Murphy, a 22-year-old town native, was recently hired by NBC Universal as a part of its legendary Page Program for aspiring producers and on-air personalities in the media industry.

Murphy told Reminder Publications she began the program, which has an acceptance rate of less than 1.5 percent of approximately 17,000 applicants, in November.

“The Page Program will kind of be me going to be working with NBC Universal as a whole across all its networks [and] all of its movies,” she added. “It’s actually a rotational program that has you working across three different areas of the company throughout a 12-month period. That could include, [Saturday Night Live], the Today Show or the Tonight Show [starring Jimmy Fallon]. But that won’t be determined until after my core time with NBC, which is going on right now.”

She added candidates for the program initially fill out an online application and if they approved for this phase they are invited for a three-hour interview at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City where NBC’s world headquarters is located.

“It was exciting and humbling all at the same time,” Murphy said.  

The Page Program was established in 1933 and alumni include actor Bruce Willis, television personality Regis Philbin as well as actress and comedian Joan Rivers.

Murphy said she would like to be involved with news and entertainment, whether she would work as a producer in the studio, in field production or on-screen.

“Helping to generate content and helping to get the stories out or get the actual shows out to the consumer is really important to me,” she added. “I’ve always had a passion for telling stories so I think reporting and anchoring seems to be a natural fit for me, but I also think one of things I’m looking forward to the most about the program is that it’s absolutely going to open my eyes to aspects of the television industry that I didn’t even know exist. This 12-month period is probably going to shape me in ways that I am not even aware of at this point in time.”

Murphy said she originally interned with E! News, a program of NBC Universal, after her junior year of college at New York University (NYU) in 2014.

She added during her time working at E! News she met celebrities almost every day, including actress Halle Berry and former professional English soccer player David Beckham.

“I literally spent my entire senior year working pretty much four or five days a week doing red carpets with our production team or going to movie junkets,” Murphy said. “Over that time, you’re pretty much meeting five to 10 celebrities a day over the course of a year.”

She graduated from NYU in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree and double majored in broadcast journalism as well as media culture and communications, she noted.

“I was asked to stay on for a second internship, which is something that they really haven’t done in the past,” she added. “It was a huge honor for me. During my time there, I made great relationships with the E! [News] team and learned more than I ever could. Following that time, I actually freelanced with them for a little while.

She has also interned in the past at MGM Resorts International in Las Vegas, NV, as well as at WGGB-TV ABC 40/ FOX News in Springfield, according to her LinkedIn page.

Murphy, a 2011 graduate of East Longmeadow High School (ELHS), said she believes the education she received in town was beneficial to her. She was involved the ELHS student newspaper, The Spartan Spectator, during her high school years.

“I loved [ELHS] and during my time there I thought about how badly I wanted to get to a big city and how I wanted to be in the excitement with all the entertainment,” she noted. “I think being out of the town and getting to do all these cool things and recognizing what it was that kind of got me to a place here where I’m now in a position to get to try this out just gives me a whole greater appreciation for our town and the great people that are there and all of the opportunities that are there that you might not recognize at the time.”