His desire to return to the
birthplace of his career was finally realized when his consulting
company was hired to restructure The Lumberjack student newspaper
and his position was created to ensure the quality experience for
current NAU students. Since his arrival at NAU, The Lumberjack has
been able to double its advertising revenues while being nationally
recognized through multiple advertising and editorial awards across
the country.
“I think the hardest adjustment upon my arrival at NAU was to learn
how to empower the students to find within themselves their own
abilities and skill sets.”
“As an entrepreneur, you do everything yourself, but empowering
students required me to learn a whole new skill set, but when you
see a students face light up upon them finding their own abilities
within themselves is as rewarding of anything I have achieved.”
Saville continues to challenge his students through the creation of
new ways to communicate with our community. The Lumberjack staff has
created a series of new products for their advertising clients and
the readers that they serve. Orientation guides, homecoming guides,
new student survival guides and the NAU Class Schedule are just a
few products that his student staff has published.
Currently Saville and the students from the Student Media Center,
that includes KJACK radio and NAU Live TV, are working on a great
project that includes the entire Flagstaff community. NAZ Today has
recently begun airing Monday through Thursday at 6 p.m. on Channel 4
and 59 that features local news for the entire community. Jan Petrie
and Lee Born have joined the team to help teach and prepare a local
newscast while teaching NAU students how to prepare, write, shoot
and edit a daily news broadcast. NAZ Today was created as a way to
not only teach students, but in response to Channel 2 going off the
air leaving a void in our local market for TV news.
As a way to stay current with the ever-changing communications
industry, Saville is also involved with bring together all student
media under one umbrella of convergence media. Establishing a
centralized news desk that assigns reporters and photographer’s
stories that will be distributed through a variety of channels
including video, audio, print and web.
“Our industry has to change to meet the demand of the end user and
it is our mission to prepare our students to enter the workforce
with the knowledge and experience this industry demands.”
On the outside, Saville is an avid fly-fisherman, archery hunter and
a supporter of all outdoor activities. He is also committed to the
community of Flagstaff by donating his time as the president of the
Flagstaff Family Food Center, president –elect for the Flagstaff
Rotary Club, vice president of the Flagstaff Independent Business
Alliance, as well as, the past board member of the United Way, YMCA,
GFEC and many more community posts. Saville was also selected as an
outstanding alum in 2000 and delivered the NAU commencement address
that same year.
He has been married to another fellow alum Jill for over 21 years
and they have one beautiful daughter Bailey who is a junior at
Sinagua High School. |
