Seton Hill Librarian Appears on “Jeopardy” 5/22
GREENSBURG, Pa. – Seton Hill Periodicals Librarian Judith Koveleskie will appear on the television quiz show “Jeopardy” May 22. In the Pittsburgh area, “Jeopardy” airs on WPXI-TV at 7 p.m.
Koveleskie, who is originally from West Newton but now resides in Greensburg, taped her appearance on the show in Los Angeles in February 2008. She was chosen for the contestant pool after taking an online test in January 2007, and then following up with another test, practice game, and personal interview with “Jeopardy” staff in Pittsburgh in December 2007. On January 18, 2008, she received a call from “Jeopardy” asking her if she’d like to be on the show.
“I was out to lunch with my best friend of 50 years when I got the call,” Koveleskie said. “She got so excited she started telling everyone at the restaurant. She came with me to Los Angeles for the taping.”
Although Koveleskie is bound by contract not to divulge any of the details of her appearance on “Jeopardy,” she is happy to share her impressions of the “once in a lifetime” experience.
“Everybody asks what Alex Trebek is like,” she says. “He seems as if he’d be very formal, but he couldn’t have been nicer. He clowned around, showed us photos of his kids and dogs, talked about doing yard work at his home, even did a little soft shoe. It helped to keep us from getting too nervous.” Koveleskie said that she found the other contestants to be less competitive than she thought, although they were “a group of very smart people.”
Koveleskie says her experience as a librarian helped her to prepare for the show. “Librarians get involved in so many subject areas,” she says. Koveleskie also spent a lot of time watching the show, and studied up on categories she noticed came up a lot, including the U.S. presidents, the planets, and historical facts that correspond with the month or season the show is being taped in. She believes her love of crossword puzzles and games of any type also helped to ready her for the demands of the show. The biggest challenge was actually something she didn’t expect – learning to buzz in on time. “You have to hit that buzzer just exactly when Alex stops reading the question. It’s harder than you’d think.”
Koveleskie isn’t planning anything special for the day her show airs. “I’ll be watching at home with my mother and husband, Bob,” she says. She thinks people who see her on the show who knew her as a young woman may be surprised. “I was so shy, so quiet,” she says with a laugh. “Now I am very much at ease in front of an audience, even an audience of forty million.”
Seton Hill University, founded by the Sisters of Charity, is a coeducational Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pa. Chartered in 1918, Seton Hill offers more than 30 undergraduate programs and nine graduate programs, including an MBA. Seton Hill brings the world to its students through its distinguished lecturers and nationally and internationally renowned centers. Recognized three times by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the nation’s Top 100 Entrepreneurial Universities, Seton Hill has also been named a Best Baccalaureate College by U.S. News & World Report, one of the Best in the Northeast by The Princeton Review, and one of Pennsylvania’s Top 100 Businesses by Pennsylvania Business Central. In addition, Seton Hill has been named a University of Distinction by Colleges of Distinction, an organization founded by a group of concerned parents, educators and admissions professionals. For more information on Seton Hill please visit www.setonhill.edu or call 1-800-826-6234.