b'newsworthyNews junkie finds her path to a successful careerCollege is an ideal time Lake took a job as a TV news reporter at Medfords NBC affiliate, KOBI. Following that, Lake served as an investigative for personal growth, as it is a time when manyreporter, fill-in news anchor, and newsroom manager at five students lack self-confidence. Hillary Lake 00 saidTV stations across the country. She won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award and two Emmys for her TV journalism work. that her SOU teachers supported her interest inI was in local news for close to 20 years, she said. I made the transition to public relations two years ago because I was communication and helped her to see mentally and physically exhausted from the daily grind of the her potential. I had some great professors. news cycle, though Im still a news junkie.Being a journalist is not easy, said Lake. Considering Dr. Sue Walsh really became a mentor to me. misinformation and threats to press freedom, Lake said she wished more people understood the training that goes She helped me to see that I was more intelligentinto being a respected journalist. The magnifying glass is than I gave myself credit for and encouraged meon us, as it should be. What we report should be factually correct, she said. It can be difficult for people to differentiate to go to grad school, she said. Shes the reason legitimate news when anyone can just start up a social media channel or podcast and call it news without training or an I got my doctorate.understanding of the responsibilities involved.In her current role as director of media relations and SOU was an ideal university for Lake in many ways. Instorytelling at Wordsworth Communications in Cincinnati, addition to being near her home in Klamath Falls, it offeredOhio, Lake draws upon her knowledge of the news industry the small class sizes and tight-knit community she was lookingevery day. Making that transition from news to PR was not for. SOU was the perfect place for me, and my major offeredas difficult as some might think, she said. Coming into PR, opportunities to study aspects of communication that I hadntI knew what newsrooms were wanting in terms of pitches and been exposed to.how to strategically frame those pitches in ways that would Lake was interested in journalism even in her youth, workinggenerate interest among local journalists, she said.on her school newspaper and at a local TV station in KlamathLakes career has been fed by a love of storytelling. As Falls when she was a high school senior. I had people in mymuch as I love research and reporting, my favorite part of life when I was younger telling me not to pursue it, that Icommunications work is listening and engagement and then wouldnt make money, she said. Thats never what its beenputting everything together for a finished product, she said. about for me. Its always been about the truth and making sureLake said she thinks about where her career started as a that history is recorded. student at SOU, how that experience shaped her and how far After earning her bachelors degree from SOU and thenshes come in the past 25 years, nearly every day, grateful that masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Oregon,she found SOU.PHOTO COURTESY OF ??????? THE R DEERR FFAALLLL220022555TH ER AAI ID 5'