I'm so excited to be beginning my reporting career here at Siouxland! I was offered the reporter position here at KCAU a few days before graduating from graduate school, and I didn't think twice before packing my bags and making my way here!
I grew up in the lovely Caribbean city of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was there during my high school years that I first became interested in journalism. I've always loved telling stories to my friends and family and I hate to admit it but I've always been kind of nosy! I need to know the specific details of any situation so my stories can be interesting. So I knew that being a journalist was the perfect job for me. I earned my Bachelor's Degree in Print Journalism at the University of Sacred Heart in Puerto Rico. A little before completing my degree I realized that being in front of the camera conveying your stories is what I really wanted. So I decided to say goodbye to the year round warm weather and move to Boston (go Red Sox and Celtics!) where I completed my Master's Degree in Broadcast Journalism at Emerson College. While studying at Emerson I worked as a reporter for the school's award winning TV news station, WEBN. I was fortunate enough to cover the Massachusetts US Senate elections as well as President Obama's visits to Boston and Nashua, NH, among others.
On my last semester at Emerson, I got the opportunity to work as an intern in the Special Reports Unit at Fox 25 in Boston. It was an amazing experience to be able to build long form stories of human interest from the ground up. That's when I discovered that as much as I love hard news stories, my biggest passion is portraying stories that can affect people's daily lives and being the voice of those who's stories are not being heard.
Outside of work, I'm most likely trying to get caught up with the TV shows that I've missed while working! I'm probably trying to sneak in a few naps during that process too. When the weather is good I try to be outside as much as possible. Whether is reading by the pool, going for walks or playing sports, I'm up for anything! The winter, well, that's another story. You will most likely find my running from my apartment to the car, from the car to Channel 9's building and back. Hopefully I will be making that run without falling on the ice. Other than that, you probably won't find me outside at all unless I'm reporting.
I look forward to keeping you informed with the latest and most accurate information like you deserve. And if you have any story ideas, comments or just want to share your story with me, I would love to hear from you!
Tanya De Jesus
tdejesus@kcautv.com
