Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Majors at IU: 1) Telecommunications 2) Social Media Journalism (Individualized Major Program)
Mississippi State University: Masters degree in Meteorology class of 2021.
What she did at IU: I picked up jobs and internships for the kind of jobs I saw myself doing after graduation (Indianapolis TV and radio stations starting freshman year). I joined student clubs that would get me access to cover IU games and build my reel and experience.
I loved creating my own video content. I talked about IU sports and student life on my YouTube channel in a fun and silly way, speaking directly to and with IU sports fans. That caught the attention of the IU athletics Department, which lead me to a great job with the school making fun videos for their marketing department.
I did sideline reporting for the Student Big 10 Network crew to gain live shot experience that turned out to be the reason I switched out of sports to become a meteorologist in my first TV news job after college. They said, “since you can ad lib, why not fill in on the green wall for WEATHER?!” What? Okay, now I’m a meteorologist (after years and years of “fun” science classes after undergrad).
What she does now: I’m a weekday morning meteorologist on Good Morning Kentucky, the ABC affiliate in Lexington… Which is hilarious, because I spent all of my college years feuding with UK fans.. and here I am forecasting weather for them!
What advice she has for sports media students: 3 important things:
1) REPITITION is everything!!! Just keep cranking out videos, web stories, tweets, whatever the case may be. I thought I was a great video editor in college… it wasn’t until I was rapidly firing out videos every day on a dead line in my first news job as an MMJ that I really learned how to edit great stuff. It’s also so important to learn quick editing because your content actually gets POSTED. Sounds obvious, but I can’t tell you how many blog posts, great videos, etc never saw the light of day because I would spend literally an hour scrubbing down and fixing a tiny sound bite here and there, or would spend 9 extra days on creative edits. When the dang thing could have just been great after a couple hours. Or 45 minutes. You’ll get there.
2) Live shot experience during college sets you worlds apart in your first job. (Thank you Big 10 Student Crew!) It gave me opportunities over other entry level people, which got me into an anchoring position quickly. It also connected me to my true passion, weather. (I still love sports, but science is where I belong, and sports is the reason I got here).
3) Try everything at least once. Don’t be that person in the newsroom, the writing team, the promotions department that turns down an opportunity because it’s not what you’re used to or what you thought you wanted to do. Well rounded experience is great for getting jobs you never knew you wanted or needed. That includes taking a news job even if you want sports. You can always move around. Don’t listen to people who tell you that once you go to news you’re locked out of sports.
Side note: my husband was a sports anchor before he switched to the dark side (what newsies call the sales department). Guess what, we still anchor together, because every sports department needs a fill in at some point! He also livestreams play-by-play for local high schools as a side gig, and is on air during sports segments he sells for his clients. The end is never the end. All experience is good experience.
Good luck, and go Hoosiers!