Broadcast Major Shares her Voice in End-of-year Events

Topaz Wells at COM's commencement.

Topaz Wells at COM's commencement.

Recent College of Marin graduate Topaz Wells is at home at the microphone. From her years working as a receptionist at KNBR, where she would spontaneously be asked to come on the air, Wells, known at the station as Special K, knew what she wanted her life’s work to be.

Wells will embark on her bachelor’s degree in Broadcasting at San Francisco State next fall. And in several graduation events on campus, Wells was asked to share her voice and her story, which Wells sums up as: “I’m reinvesting in my future and chasing my passion.”

Wells focused her speech on the support College of Marin provided her as a student. Wells credits EOPS, Umoja, Student Accessibility Services, the tutors at the English center and her counselor, Rinetta Early, for guiding her “in pursuing (her) mission.”

Wells’ favorite part of sharing her story is telling how she turned her trials “into the victory that (she’s) experiencing right now.” She describes it as “changing poison into medicine.”

Wells wants to use her voice, which is a strikingly deep and resonant instrument, to give others a voice. Wells will begin a hands-on program in radio and television and envisions using her skills in the future to give the next generation, as well as older adults, a platform to “discuss any topic of their choice.”

Wells’ COM production credits include voiceover work for a PSA on Heirs to Our Oceans, a podcast on astrology (another passion of hers), and an interview of an entrepreneur (who also happens to be her boyfriend).

Wells says she loves being on the air so much, she would wear a microphone around her neck if she could. When asked, what’s stopping her, she answers with a tone humorously between “Isn’t it obvious?” and deadpan: “Girl, it’s too heavy.”