He was named a Who’s Who student in 2004. The following year, he received the Mother Ursula Award, which honors a senior who has best fulfilled the ideals of the College through academics, extracurricular activities, leadership, and service to fellow classmates and Cabrini. In 2008, he earned the Young Alumni Award, which honors dedication to the College through continuous service.
What does a person as decorated—and dedicated—as this do for an encore?
He becomes CEO of his own company, Totally Focused Productions, LLC, and manager of day-of-air operations at ABC in New York, where he coordinates programming across the country.
Vagell’s path to ABC began during his first year at Cabrini, when he worked in the College’s studio on the production of Comcast Newsmakers, which aired regional news segments throughout the Philadelphia area on CNN Headline News.
As a senior, Vagell added an internship doing audiovisual work at Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center, home to the NBA’s ’76ers and the NHL’s Flyers.
Those experiences—and contacts he made along the way—opened the door to his first job after graduating, as a master control technician for the Comcast-owned cable TV station CN8 in Philadelphia.
And the awards keep coming. Vagell in 2008 won a bronze Telly Award for an independent video he produced through his company on firefighter safety. More than 14,000 entries were submitted for the 2008 Telly Awards, which honor the best local and cable television programming, outstanding video and film productions, and work created for the Internet.
And while he continues to make great strides in his career, he still remains committed to the College that helped him so much along the way. He serves on Cabrini College’s Alumni Board of Directors, where he assists in planning alumni events and scholarships.