(U-WIRE) COLUMBIA, S.C. – A University of South Carolina student is one step closer to national stardom since she completed the last phase in the competition for a position as an MTVU video jockey.

Sarah Messer, a third-year media arts student, spent Nov. 6-10 in New York vying for the job in a series of contests that will be aired on national television starting Monday.

“The whole thing has gone by so fast,” Messer said. “It is kind of surreal.”

Messer said Thursday she and the other four contestants were placed in the audience of MTV’s “Total Request Live” to get accustomed to the MTV atmosphere.

She said she and other contestants participated in a game on Nov. 8 that tested their music knowledge by asking them to perform various tasks, such as recognizing songs and artists from their lyrics.

“I think I did better than most of the people,” Messer said. “But I was relieved when it was over.”

After the contest, the prospective VJs were informed of an interview each was going to conduct with rapper JaRule later in the afternoon.

“It was pretty nerve-racking at first,” Messer said. “But after the interview started, it was pretty laid back.”

She returned to South Carolina on Nov. 10. Messer said she conducted a set of interviews on the Montclair State University campus that tested her resilience in unorthodox situations.

“I would be reading the cue cards, and it would say something like: ‘Now do 15 jumping jacks’ in the middle of the interview,” Messer said. “Which I did and luckily the person did, too.”

Messer said that the trip was fun, but not necessarily exotic, considering she is from Orange County, N.Y.

If she is selected, she will work as a host for MTVU’s spring break programming.

Messer’s VJ application process began at USC, when the MTVU crew visited the campus on Oct. 21. Of the scores of students who tried out for the VJ tour at USC, only Messer remained at the end of the day. Messer is the only remaining candidate from a Southern university, something she is proud of.

“I am representing the whole Southeast,” Messer said. “So I guess I am a culmination of all the trends and styles, etc.”

– Taylor Smith