 Hello, everyone. Good evening. My name is Colleen McGinn. I'm one of the directors of alumni engagement in the Office of Alumni Relations. I want to thank you all for joining us tonight for this special webinar, which is being held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of women at Fairfield. Tonight we have three esteemed panelists who I'd like to briefly introduce. We have Tanya Klitsch, class of 2006, who is a lifestyle reporter for Forbes. Teresa Priolo, class of 2005, who is a Fox 5 New York anchor reporter and Melody Serifino, class of 2005 co-founder of number 29 Communications, who will also be our moderator. So at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Melody. Thank you Colleen. Thank you, Janet and Fairfield for the opportunity to have this discussion tonight. And thanks to everyone for being here. Welcome. We appreciate you spending time with us. We know everybody is experiencing Zoom fatigue right now, so really excited that you chose to spend this hour with us. And thanks to Fairfield for giving me an opportunity to dress up for the first time in about six months. I am honored to be joined by Teresa and Tanya tonight. Tanya and I have had the opportunity to actually work together over the years. Teresa and I were in the same class. So we were actually all at Fairfield at the same time. As Colleen mentioned, I'm Melody Serifino. I'm the co-founder of number 29 Communications, which is a PR agency based in New York City, but doing work globally. We work with clients in the sustainability and impact spaces, helping to tell their stories in the media. So some of the brands that we work with who you may have heard of include Ted, if anybody's ever listened to a Ted talk, and sustainable French sneaker brand Veja, if you've seen those really cute chic sneakers with the V on the side of them. I've also am the co-founder of a media company called Enough Media. We have a podcast and a newsletter and a website that is helping to tell stories of change makers, innovators, people who are finding solutions. We know the world's on fire, but our tagline is, you know, for those who are fed up but not giving up, we want to put a spotlight on people who are doing really great work in this time. So, honored to have you all here tonight. The format of this conversation will be about 40 to 45 minutes of discussion, and then we will do a 15 minute Q&A. I think everybody who sent questions in advance, we are going to do our best to address those within the conversation, but we encourage people to please put questions in the chat throughout the conversation because that's what I'll be saying will be that portion of the program. So without further ado, I would like to turn it over to Teresa and Tanya, who will do their bios far better justice than I will. So I'll start with Tanya, if you can just tell us who you are what you do, and perhaps how Fairfield prepared you for the work that you're currently doing. Absolutely. Hi, everyone. Tanya Clitch here. I work at Forbes class of 2006. So basically, it all started at Fairfield. I was a reporter for the Fairfield Mirror, and I remember interning at News 12 Connecticut when I was a junior. The bug bit me, right? So now I work at Fairfield. I'm sorry. Now we work at Forbes. There's a lot of alliteration throughout my schooling and career. So now I'm at Forbes, where I'm a lifestyle reporter. I'm a lifestyle reporter second, a business reporter first, and I'll get to that in a second. After I graduated, I worked as a local news reporter. I got my start at WLNY TV 10 and 55 in Long Island, New York. I was also a former New York one reporter where I covered Queens, which is my home borough. Then I moved over to the digital magazine magazine side as a features editor at entrepreneur magazine where I interviewed a wide range of some of the best entrepreneurs, including Damon John and Tony Robbins, then made the leap to Forbes, where I was part of the entrepreneurs and startup section. And I recently made the move to lifestyle. But I think of myself as someone who covers the business of lifestyle, of course. Also, when I was at Fairfield, I went by Tanya Benedicto until I met Adam Klitsch at Barone, and we live in Brooklyn with our toddler son and we'll have another son by end of summer. And I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks Tanya Teresa. Hi everybody to pre-order as Melanie mentioned class of 2005. I was bit by the same bug that Tanya happened to be bit by different years, but same virus. Right now I am an anchor reporter at Fox five channel five in New York City, I spent the majority of my time with the station on our morning show. Good day New York so my day was usually a call time around 2am. I ended around 11am and then fell asleep or did whatever I need to do for the day. And if you're familiar with good day New York at the show that you've watched or if you've caught up from time to time it's very much like a network morning show so it's about six hours, seven hours of live coverage so it was a very fast paced very hectic very unpredictable but certainly very exciting I too have a child a toddler three year old so right after I had my son I moved to the evening show which provided me the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with him so I get to balance both roles of mom until noon ish and then reporter anchor from noon until about 11pm. My career has taken me all over the place I it actually started at Fairfield with the ham channel and doing some work with them. And then they were the ones that encouraged me to get an internship in Hartford at WFSB. I did the commute to three times a week from Fairfield to to Hartford to intern there. They helped me find my first on air job in Idaho Falls, Idaho. I was a reporter then anchor there there I moved to Albany New York, where I was an anchor and seeing the pattern here and then finally I was able to come home to New York but New Jersey is home for me. So my career has been quite unpredictable but really fun and like Tanya it has had a lot of different twists and turns, you meet the most incredible people from the variety of backgrounds you you you happen to find yourself in places you wouldn't expect telling stories that you would never imagine you'd be able to tell but that's certainly the beauty of our business it's not for everybody but as Tony mentioned if you're somebody who has the kind of personality that can handle this ever changing and once you're in you're usually in for life so that's where I stand right now as far as how Fairfield helped me as I mentioned, it gave me my start essentially. When I went to my first newsroom in in Hartford, they were surprised by some of the terminology that I knew or the way that I was able to put together a story or just my sort of know how around a TV studio, and I was just basing that off of what we had on campus, which at the time in 2005 wasn't that extensive I mean the equipment that we had was great but it wasn't as if Fairfield had gotten to the point where we were new house or USC where they had this massive TV studio to welcome you. And so they were quite impressed with what we had on campus and they were able to help me foster that talent which was really incredible. And I also from Fairfield just, they were able to foster my natural curiosity. Remind me to ask questions of people regardless of how important they are hold their feet to the fire, even if it's somebody that you might be intimidated by. I just really felt like they primed me for the career that I have now which I couldn't have asked for anything better, even if I went to a place like a new house or USC or Notre Dame or Northwestern or wherever. I got everything I needed and it really set me up for what has been a wild ride. Thank you for your question right now. Now let me also go back to you. Thanks Teresa and actually my one of my distinct memories at Fairfield is I think from the moment we were in TV classes together. You had said I want to be a news anchor and so it's been such a delight to watch that career trajectory for you. And you know for those who are not in media or communications. We all work in concert with each other so we're on different sides of the business but I work with my clients to help tell stories that Teresa or Tanya would tell to their audiences. So my job is to help figure out what is that narrative how will it be most compelling to a journalist and how will it be most suited to their audience and then actually write the pitch to hopefully help develop that story. So, you know that we're here tonight to talk about storytelling storytelling has become a bit of a buzzword. Certainly, we would probably all consider ourselves storytellers were in the industry of storytelling but I think the word storytelling has really extended beyond just media journalism and communications at this point with the advent of social media everyone has the ability to be a storyteller whether it's for themselves as an individual for a brand, you know we really kind of crave these human moments and these stories whether it's a product we support and understanding how it's made where it's made and who's behind it, whether it's a person that we follow on Instagram and we want to sort of connect with them personally. So I'm curious to hear from you Tanya and Teresa on how you define storytelling and I don't know who wants to take it first but muted. I'll start real quickly, right without getting too theoretical I know right now storytelling has taken so many forms so many concepts and series. We watched all these documentaries and thrillers and series where the timeline goes way out of whack they go to the future and then back to the past. For those of you in any field who just want to master the art of storytelling we just have to remember. It has a beginning, middle and end. And I always just want to make sure the reader walks away or the viewer walks away with a sense of enlightenment or a new emotion, new perspective and it could be that simple, but I would love to also hear Teresa's take on it. For me storytelling is just as you said Tanya, it's a ride. You take people on a journey. It doesn't always end up the way you think it should it depends on what elements you can bring to the table if you are a journalist as we are. Sometimes it's only what's available to you but if it's Melanie where you're working with a client, you might have the ability to pull in so many more different kinds of resources that time might allow something like that. So, when I think of storytelling, I think of taking people on some sort of journey some sort of ride it doesn't, in my mind doesn't really matter if you know the ending. It doesn't really matter matter if you know the beginning, or even the middle it's just that you, you want to convey a sense of, as Tanya said excitement. And it's a journey and I also want to mention, for those people who are here and they don't know if they're storytellers yet. I think a lot of people find themselves as storytellers, and they didn't think that they were. It's sort of something that's developed over time. That's at least what I found I didn't know that I was going to be a storyteller I thought I was going to be a journalist and I didn't know that the two will be one in the same. So, my form of storytelling might be different than a lot of other people's I call it reporting. Someone else might call it storytelling so as Melanie said you know everybody loves the word storytelling but it might you might actually be doing it you just might not call it storytelling. I'm curious if either of you have a story that you've told over the years in, you know, the different places that you've worked that has really been a rewarding moment for you or something that is really stuck with you a person who you've interviewed. A story that you are perhaps able to unveil and tell for the first time. Is there is that sort of a proud moment in your career. Absolutely. And I mentioned before how when I worked at entrepreneur magazine I interviewed all these big startup founders like, you know, like Damian john Tony Robbins etc but I will say that I think some of the most unforgettable characters I've interviewed before I was a local news reporter and I'm sure Teresa can totally speak to that it's not just the celebrities or the big names or the big local politicians I'm sure it's just the everyday people in whatever community she's covering that day, or if I'm covering a small business owner. Sometimes they're the most interesting so as Teresa said it's journey and it's also a lot of different voices that go into it, different perspectives. So as a local reporter I'll never forget just someone, a young woman from the Rockaways who held a prom dress drive, you know, it just meant a lot to local teens in her neighborhood. When it comes to other unforgettable rewarding stories I'm going to bring up a story that you and I worked on together Melody. So it's, I mentioned that the audience should learn something but the absolute best is when I learned something totally different and I know you know where I'm getting at. You know, I mentioned that I'm a mom to a toddler so during the journey of reporting on the parental rights of women in the workplace, I began to research all the founders and entrepreneurs in that space for the longest time. When purchasing products for my baby, I always found out about the snoo best in that. And I thought, this is just a luxury product. This is just a high tech bassinet. And, you know, what's the deal about it and then Melody and I, Melody contacted me and told me all about the founder behind the brand who's Dr. Carp. And it turned out, he's just not on this path of to building a luxury brand. He's actually investing a lot in technology that is saving a lot of, you know, mothers and children from a lot of dangers that happened during those, during that fourth trimester. Melody, I don't know if you could even pull it up very quickly if you give it a quick Google. Yeah, no big deal if you can, but also it was really awesome interviewing him and him telling me how he's donating a bunch of the best of these bassinets to women's shelters and hospitals that are doing research on, you know, children who are born with either disabilities or those who are born to mothers who were addicts and who need the extra sway and shushing that this high tech bassinet provides and it's that kind of innovation that really catches my heart and interest and hopefully the audience is too. But that's just one, that is just one rewarding story out of many but this one was just really, you know, hit me during a time when the topic of innovation in parenting was super important and I owe that to collaborating with Melody. I've just pulled it I don't know if you all can see my screen but this is the story that Tanya is referring to. Yeah, so also this actually got picked up as a daily cover story by the Forbes editors. And as, you know, right now I'm a print reporter but I'm also an on air digital reporter so there was also photo essays attached to this as well as an Instagram live on the Forbes account so that's, you know, another aspect to storytelling how many mediums can you fit into one story and in this case there were many. I'm sure we could pick up, you know, show the Instagram live another day we'll be here for like it ran for an hour and it was a huge hit. Yeah, and also I can just attest that my client was absolutely thrilled with that story it came out on Mother's Day weekend so it was a really nice tie into sort of this editorial news cycle of something that felt really timely and topical. And it was also Mother's Day during a pandemic when so many mothers across the country were just grappling with working at home with a baby or toddler and just balancing it all. Teresa do you have a story that particularly resonates with you. I do but I just want to mention I have interviewed Harvey many, many, many times I've interviewed him for my podcast I've interviewed him for on air. I've interviewed him at mom's conferences he is the world's most one he is a gift to earth. I love him and his whole family, his wife is a major powerhouse behind their brand his daughter is awesome. Oh, they're great and the product actually works I used it for my kid when my son wouldn't sleep. I was like, I got to try something. And that thing did the trick. So, I'm not endorsing it I'm just telling you, it worked for us. I will be passing that along. Oh, would you just tell him how much I love him I get emails from him and I'm like, Dr Harvey Karp I have a question and I love you. So he's great. The stories that have really resonated. There are a couple I mean, over the course of the last eight years at Fox, I have been able to cover all the big stories. Thankfully I've been able to cover all the big stories in our area from the very, very big ones like Newtown, and being up there that day and witnessing the aftermath of Sandy Hook to really fun one like a Super Bowl. But the, I think the story, I don't know if it's the one I'm most proud of I'm very, very proud of it, but I hear about it the most and I feel like it has sort of stood the test of time at this point. I started through about four years ago, doing a series on Lyme disease. And it all started because my general manager of my station his wife suffers from chronic Lyme I didn't know what I didn't know that there was a thing called chronic Lyme like four years ago. And he said you know there's this thing called Lyme disease and I said yeah even you get by the tick. It's like it's just, it's not that the tick doesn't just bite you and go away it's not a rash. People are getting seriously ill. So my boss called me in and he said I want you to do a story on this. It doesn't make it like three minutes. The boss wants it see what you can find. Don't screw it up. See what you find. I'm like, okay, that's a mandate if I ever heard one. And what ended up coming from that was the first of four half hour specials online disease. And in the first one we talked to celebrities like Ali Hill figure and Yolanda at the time it was Yolanda Hadid, Yolanda Foster from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills who's been quite vocal about her journey to the top doctors that are the neurologists and neuroscientists disease doctors that are treating this around the world to actual patients I talked to a girl who lost her ability to walk at around the age of, I believe it was 11 or 12. And her, her entire goal or motivation was to be able to walk into high school. She just wanted to walk into high school, something that had been taken away from her by this virus by this by this parasite. And what ended up happening for me was people all around the world found this on YouTube. I didn't even know that we posted on YouTube but we but the station did and I started receiving letters from people in Australia and England. Everywhere I was Google translating Facebook messages from people and some of them were what would be considered a suicide note but they didn't end up taking their life because they felt like they found solace and comfort and community in watching our half hour special which blew me away because I have done stories before where I have felt as if they've resonated with people, but I have never heard somebody tell me that they, they thought twice about taking their own life because they felt like well if this if somebody in New York City is doing this and paying this much attention to it, and maybe, maybe the tide is turning on this maybe I'm, maybe I can show this to my doctor, and they'll know that I'm not making it up that the brain fog and the chronic fatigue and the aches and pains and the weird rashes and the skin issues. I'm not, it's not psychosomatic. They're real. And that to me just, it leveled me I, I, I, I know that that kind of thing happens but it usually doesn't happen to a local news reporter. You don't normally hear from people in Australia about a story that you're doing and so one became to be now we're on for it's been nominated for awards and it's one Emmys and I'm just really really happy with the fact that it has resonated with this community, who has felt for so long they have been ignored they have made been made fun of they have been told it's in their head and move on. And they've been diagnosed with other things like rheumatoid arthritis or Alzheimer's when in fact maybe they didn't have those diseases they had Lyme disease. So, that's one that I think about all the time and I still meet people who tell me, oh I saw your special, or, but I didn't see it on air I saw it on YouTube, and I think, God for YouTube. Certainly helped us out so that would be one that really comes to mind. I mean that is just a New York anchor she's really a global anchor, because they're putting everything on YouTube which is so awesome. Yeah, but that wasn't something that I realized like I didn't realize I mean that but I didn't think about the reach of a story like that I thought it, I thought I was just doing my boss wanted me to do which was not screwing up the story. My natural curiosity was well if this person says this, but the CDC doesn't recognize that this exists. Well then let's go talk to the CDC, and then you get the CDC on the line and they're giving you a story that's different than everything else that's ever been published. I mean that's just from from the federal government and you and the story just builds over time over months. And it was really it was so rewarding to know that I was a, I was healthy enough and capable enough and had the resources to do the work that so many people around the world have needed but couldn't have access to. So I'm curious, you touched you both touched on this a little bit in your initial introductions but what inspired you to become storytellers and were there certain storytellers that you looked up to over the years. And I did in Fairfield again, I, my professors at Fairfield, James Simon at the time was the head of the journalism department. And I know when it comes to, I mean I can go on and on about my favorite writers and storytellers but I remember Jack Kavanaugh was also a news writing project professor in Columbia J school where I went to J school. He's the author of so many top selling sports novels one being Tony actually have it right here I have a pile of sports books, and that's his at the top. He's one of my favorites. As I alluded to this earlier, I don't think I really set out to be a storyteller I hadn't at the time and at least that I was at Fairfield especially put the two together I knew that I wanted to tell stories. I knew that I wanted to report what was happening. I knew that I wanted to be where the action was I knew that I had sort of a pension for that sort of excitement. When, especially in college, and maybe even the early part of my career, when I thought of storytellers. I thought of filmmakers, I thought of your Steven Spielbergs, or your, or your novelist, I didn't think of journalists as that and I've come to have, thankfully, a greater vision for what we do over the better part of the last 15 years. At Fairfield, the, the person that jumps out to me, the front and center, I think about him all the time. Oh, wait, the lights just went out. Sorry, I'm going to get up and jump around a little bit but I'll finish my thought if you guys can still see me. The person that comes to mind for me is, is Dr. Orman, john Orman, I took his political science class, and I still remember some phrases that he told us things that we had to remember in the course of political history in the course of a campaign that I say to myself when I'm, when I'm reporting on different political events The one that comes to mind is he would always tell us, a horse never changes direction midstream, when we were talking about presidents in the wake of crisis or in the wake of war, I don't know, but his, his way of communicating was so effective and it was so beautiful that I, I consider someone like him a storyteller. It wasn't that he wasn't paid to tell stories he was a political science junkie and a political professor, but someone like that jumps out at me. In the news business though, the person I have always looked up to is Steve Hartman, who's on CBS. He tells, he does a series everybody has a story I think he is just incredibly brilliant not only is he brilliant but his photographer who he only works with one photographer. And that gentleman is able to put together a story in pictures like no one else in the business but there are so many. I'm a big fan of Ava DuVernay I'm a big fan I mean there's just the list is long the list is very, very long but, but I have my appreciation for what it takes to tell a story has certainly grown as my time in the business has grown to. I think it's also indicative of the fact that storytelling comes in a lot of different forms and a lot of different mediums I mean you were saying that you always thought of it as being documentary film or filmmaking. I think that's are really great ways to hear certain stories and often how I get a lot of the stories that I love, you know, and listen to Tonya did you want to say something to you. Oh I was just going to say my ears and base lit up the second you said Dr Orban I think I took four of his classes he's a true their field legend. Absolutely. This past year has obviously been incredibly challenging a roller coaster for news media. I'm curious, have you had to pivot the way in which you tell stories during the pandemic how has it impacted your storytelling. Absolutely well once I remember it was just about March 10 I filed a big story about a huge luxury beauty company. It was two three months on it really it was just a lot of reporting and of course, till this day, we have not published it there's no right time for it. Quickly I pivoted because I'm a lifestyle reporter for Forbes that include fashion beauty lifestyle arts culture restaurants dining travel. So, how do we make sure we're not tone deaf while reporting on such topics so I had to pivot back to becoming a business reporter and not just a lifestyle luxury reporter. And at the time I just went 100% into covering and pretty much supporting the restaurant industry and hospitality industry as they were getting ravaged by the pandemic. And I think one of my top interviews at the time was interviewing Tom Calico, who was a major voice for the hospitality restaurant alliance. And I just remember talking to him about the bailout that his industry needed and more importantly, what he was just going through as a business owner, you know we think, okay, he's Tom Calico he's a big, you know, town chef, and, you know, but at the same time, he's an employer of hundreds of people in different cities. What's he going through, what's he demanding what does he need at the moment and that was just one thing I interviewed him as well as an array of other chefs and even hoteliers across the country and it was a really, I remember just 24 seven reporting on it. And we would turn all those print stories into Instagram lives and that would just boost engagement and really put a face and voice to the quotes that I was typing out and publishing So that's how we pivoted until this day that luxury beauty company I just revisited them I said, should we visit this and they said, we don't even want to talk about how business was last year. I said okay that's fine. You know, and it was just being human also about what these business owners were going through what they had no idea what was going on. I actually Tonya was one of the last people that I saw in person before the world shut down I think that Thursday, before everything shut down we had a meeting together with one of my clients and we're literally getting real time text messages with people saying New York's about to shut down, go to the grocery store, buy everything you need. The end of the world is is coming and so it's like, it's such a distinct memory in my mind. Do you do you have anything that you want to share in terms of how you've had to pivot in your storytelling over the last year. What's really interesting about the last year is that if you think about journalists whether it's a local journalist at a local newspaper local reporter at a TV station, or even a network team. We do our job everywhere, we do our job anywhere we go where the story is so if that's a street corner we're there. If it's a war zone we're there if it's Buckingham Palace we try to get there we go where it is. The one place where we don't do our job is at home. And it's quite literally the only place where we don't have studios. There are fun stories at home but we don't report from home. And this pandemic I think has forced all of us to strip ourselves there and figure out what do we do, what do we do well, where, what are our weaknesses, what are our strengths let's play to those For me, around March, I want to say it was like 17th 18th. They set up a studio in my home, and they only did that because they wanted to make sure that should we have to give up our building if we had so many cases of coded that there was a couple of people within our network that had access to a camera that we could flip it on and still continue our new cycle. And we're used to it, the new cycle we're used to constantly telling people what's going on and keeping ourselves on air, but we're not used to doing that in a one bedroom apartment in battery Park City with a two year old, pulling at the cable. We're not used to doing that when you're praying that he that your son doesn't have a total meltdown in the corner during dinner time when you happen to have the five o'clock or six o'clock show. So it really forced us to go inward. It was unnatural, but I think I can speak for myself. I think that it just forced me to focus on storytelling focus on what do I do best I think of good stories. Most often I can tell a good story. I can relate to people if I can get them on the line. And I can write. So let me just do that. And then I can. I know that if I work with the right photographer the right team I can put it together and I relied on that heavily I relied on the basics during this past year to put good stories on the air and it has worked. As it been unnatural, it's certainly been unnatural. Has it been weird? It is so weird, but I think that we have just tried to roll with the punches. And in some ways it's been amazing because everybody is available. Everybody that you want to interview, at least for the better part of the year has been at home. So you could get them, which you normally can't because you have to drive an hour set up the shot takes an hour to do the shoot. Do they have time in their schedule? Can their assistant pencil it in? Not now. They have a camera. They have a computer. We could do the interview, which means I can get them in a story. And that has been a blessing to have that sort of access to people. I think I'll be a little sad when that goes away. And I hope that my storytelling as a result doesn't suffer because of that. That convenience has been quite nice. I think the other thing that has happened, which I have loved as a journalist is that it seems as if this pandemic, this virus has been the great equalizer. Of course, there are communities that have been hit significantly hard. And those are stories that we need to tell. But in terms of how it has impacted your young working professional or sort of the average expert that we would go to, whether they are multimillionaires or not, they're at home. So they want to share their story. They want to get their business on air. They want to talk about how it's impacting them. They want to get their message out. And so a lot of the hoops or the BS that we would normally have to jump through, we don't because they are so eager to get their face in front of a camera to share their message that they are coming to us, which has been really nice. I also have interviewed Tom Clicky, Chefs to carry in a number of other people from the restaurant industry, and to hear them talk about how hard they have worked throughout their entire life to get to the point where we all know their name, especially their last name. And now to have this happen where their restaurants their employees have been decimated by this has been heartbreaking but I think a lot of the media exposure that has come over the last year on the restaurant industry and certainly the pressure that has been placed on senators and congressmen and women and state lawmakers and governors to to pass the restaurant rescue act or to get them the assistance that they need which admittedly has not come yet, but there's more pressure now for them to do that than ever I think has really helped their cause and I've been grateful to be able to do that. I think that's actually a really great segue into my next question which is around social media and its impact on how you both report I mean Tonya you spoke to it a little bit when you were talking about the transition to doing the Forbes Instagram lives. Theresa you spoke about how YouTube sort of blew that story up and made it more global for you. How has social media and this, you know so many journalists find that they have to have a personality on Twitter on Instagram now. How has that worked for both of you. During the pandemic. I mean, we're not a local news station. So we don't have the same technical equipment that Theresa would have. So we have video producers a video department, and I'm used to traveling from city to conference to small business to entrepreneur interview across the country with them. But that all came to a halt. So it was zoom all day. Instagram lives every other day. It's like Teresa said it's they're able to, they're eager to get their voice out, especially when they're home doing nothing with their hands tied they want to speak up and it really was awesome the best part of it is getting the audience interactivity. During those Instagram lives you hear you have questions directly from our viewers in real time I'm able to ask for them right then and there. The YouTube comments as well. It's, it's really great it's a great way for us to interact with the audience and keep that conversation going. I have a very love hate relationship with social media I'm being totally honest. Part of me thinks that it's going to be the death of all of us and society as we know it. Another part of me thinks this is a phenomenal tool at our disposal not only as journalists but as people the way that you can get out pertinent information the way you can connect with people the problems that are solved the issues that are brought to light I am all in for all of that. I think that's great. Unfortunately there is a ton of misinformation, mixed in with the real information and I think that can also be a detriment, including in times like this where people are isolated at home. They're not doing the same social events that they would normally do so maybe they're not speaking as freely about what's on their mind or what information they're hearing and seeing and I think it unfortunately has had the ability to turn a lot of people in word and you know just create situations that are not healthy going forward for not only individually or for for society as a whole but in terms of the benefit of social media has forced me to think about who am I talking to. Why am I talking to them and what do I want to say to them and how do I want to get it out. Which is the basics of what we do I guess on a day to day basis but in, especially on a Twitter, not a Twitter listen may sound like an agent on Twitter in a tweet. You have to be really concise and I think that that matters a lot to journalists because we do have to think about what we put out and how we say it and who we're talking to on an Instagram or Facebook I like all platforms for different reasons and I think all of them are really beneficial for different reasons. In terms of the the pro side, but I, you know, I love the fact that a story that we that Tanya and I can do can go global with a tweet can go global with an Instagram post or it can be expanded upon with an Instagram live or a Facebook live. I think that's really incredible and the other thing that I think is really wonderful is that it takes one newspaper or one TV station and it as tiny said it. It brings them everywhere no longer our viewers just New York, New Jersey, Connecticut parts of Pennsylvania they can really be everywhere, which means I also get story ideas from everywhere and I can see how they relate to New York. The saying is, you know, a story anywhere if it's news anywhere it's news in New York a story anywhere is the story in New York. And I really believe that's true especially when you look when you're looking for information and for stories on social media. So I'm, I'm on, I have to tell you I'm not, I'm on the fence about it I, I'm concerned about where we're going in the future with it. But I do think it has forced us to be a little bit more. So I want to start to transition to some of the questions that we're getting in the chat because we're getting a lot of really great questions. So I'm just going to either or both of you can take these but one of the first questions is can you please share any thoughts on applying storytelling and for example using storytelling to build trust and confidence with clients, employees, teams, etc. I mean I can weigh in very quickly to say that, you know, I think storytelling is a great way to connect with your employees to connect with people in the workplace it builds that human connection and trust. I'm curious what both or either of you have to say about this. Yeah, I think it's the basis for everything we do whatever industry you're in I don't know that I don't know of an industry where storytelling. That's in some way again it might not be called storytelling but the, the, the idea that you don't need to form some sort of narrative that you then need to sell to someone. or convince them of isn't important. So I think you should just think about it that way I think you should think about your business. As you have a product or an idea or an issue that you need to convey or sell. And so how what journey are you going to take people on. How are you going to convince them of that. What tools that you have at your disposal that you're going to use in order to help them understand ultimately where you want them to end up which is, you know, whatever your end goal is. I interview a lot of founders a lot of startup CEOs so I profile a lot of, you know, their journeys as entrepreneurs and one of the, you know, one of the main questions I always ask is what inspired you to launch your business what was the human challenge or what was the solution that you're trying to arrive to I mean, as a business reporter I always do have to cover, you know, what was the revenue in 2020. You know how much money did you lose due to the pandemic. How much money did you have to invest how much personal capital did you have to invest, but all those numbers aside. I think the best things about these business stories are the human elements of it. And, you know, every, every founder every business leader who wants to find their story they think they have to find out magnificent moment or that, you know, blue moon element to an amazing to build this amazing story but really sometimes it's the relatability that really strikes the personal core for the audience. You know a lot of companies were built because of health issues or because someone experienced burnout and was inspired to make a career leap like how many of us have felt that. As an element of relatability I also encourage you to find as a business leader or someone trying to build the business of the story of your brands. I would add to that also the vulnerability aspect of it. I mean people want to hear that you're human just like them, even if you are at the helm of a company and I think employees also want to feel that way if as a manager or an employee you need to know that, you know, we're in a really hard moment right now, just because I'm meeting a team of 10 people doesn't mean that I'm not having the same breakdowns behind the scenes that my 24 year olds on my team are having. We're all in this sort of uncertain place. And I think that relatability can actually go a really long way in the workplace. So, another question that came in is, you know, this is from someone who was class of 1974, which was the first class of women that and back then men were seen and heard much more often in the news than on the news than women. So she's asking do you think the climate for women storytellers is much better now and that women are usually respected as much as men. Well, those are two very different questions. I don't know that women are respected as much as men. I don't know if Tonya would agree with me or not. I don't know that. I don't know that that that there is parody there but I do believe that that we have come a long way in amplifying women's voices in recognizing the importance of women's voices. In explaining to the audience that a woman's voice is is as crucial as a man. In my opinion, one is not more important than the other they're both equally important for the story that you're telling you have to know who your audience is you have to know what the message you're attempting to convey. But no, I mean, at least in journal at least TV in the TV world, it's still much more desirable to have a deep voice. It's still much more desired to have a free look. It's still much more desirable to be leaning. I mean there are still some things that are ingrained in in our male dominated industry that haven't yet gone away despite the prevalence of women taking, you know, roles, whether it's at network television or heads of major newspapers or what have you, where they are front and center I don't think that, sadly I don't think the tide has turned completely, but I think we're trying. I mean we are trying. I mean, from a business reporter perspective the numbers speak for themselves women still struggle to raise venture capital for their own businesses. So what I do as a, you know, I was a member of the Forbes women team before I moved to lifestyle but I still continue every chance I get to highlight women in business, especially in the male dominated field of startups and venture capital. So today published a story, the founder of medicine read raised another $50 million for her hair care venture. That's a total of $200 million in venture capital for her venture that she started in 2013. Those I love putting women and millions in the same headline. It's the least we can do as storytellers to support women in business. I mean, I'm an industry PR which is primarily dominated by women, but it's certainly doesn't mean that the role is any more respected so even though we have long been long skewed women centric. There's a great story I think it's from 2014 that the feminist writer and Friedman wrote for New York bag that says why do we still consider PR the pink ghetto. She talks about the history of this industry, which really kind of developed and came into its own in the 1950s and 60s. And it was women who were behind the scenes supporting male CEOs at companies and kind of the players and the people pulling the strings behind the scene and being strategic and telling them what to say and who to talk to and when to talk to them, and yet being treated basically like assistants, even though these men could not have survived without them. It's just a really interesting. I think it's an interesting illustration of the fact that even if the industry is primarily dominated by one gender it doesn't necessarily equate to that parody that Teresa was was sort of speaking to before. Next question is what has been the most challenging story or conversation that you have had to cover. There have been a lot of them. I think I would, this was people are gonna think this might be a canned answer but I, but I think it's the, it's the stories where there are children involved, especially since I've become a mom, and I understand the connection between parent and child, not that you need to have a child in order to understand that connect connection but I feel it so much more deeply now than I did when I was 21. I remember covering a story in my first job in Idaho Falls Idaho where a little boy was killed in a house fire. It was a, it was a underprivileged underserved area and the mom had been smoking marijuana, and had dumped the embers out on her hand because her kid ran in the house in the room, and she went like this and they, they, they, they smoldered and burned the mattress that the kid ultimately took was taking a nap on or was going to take a nap on. He died in the fire and I remember being literally 21 and having all these other senior reporters females around me saying I can't do that I can't cover this story. I can't, I can't do this and I kept thinking, yes, it's really sad. It's horrific what happened to this little boy. But this is our job. Now that I'm a mom, I would never have that response I understand innately what those women were going through I only wish I had the compassion to understand it then. But it, you know the stories like Newtown the stories like that even just stories where children have been victimized in some way, even if they ultimately lived. And they're really tough to put into words, how, how heartbreaking, and how deeply they impact the reporter I think also because we're not supposed to show emotion. So it's tough to do a story where it's, it's an emotional story and it should be emotion without yourself having to show any sort of emotion. That's a that's a balance that I still think I'm. As you know it's different for Teresa she's working in, you know, very close to the community and being a bit supporter it's maybe not as emotional but it's actually in the past year or two that's totally changed in addition to the pandemic of course the issue of race relations has dropped up in 2020 and I've been interviewing a lot of African American and black entrepreneurs and, you know, founders of color and they've been really speaking up about just the issues they faced and the biases they faced in the startup world so that's also been, I'm happy to report on it but it's a very difficult to hear that this still continues, you know, in, in the venture community. Can you share what you think are the elements of a good story. And now you talked a little bit about what how you define storytelling, but what are the elements of a really good story in your opinion. Sometimes one voice can transform a story and I have a great example. One of the recent ones I've done is interviewing rapper named Rick Ross he's a big deal he's one of our Forbes hip hop cash kings. And of course, you know he's a personality and I get a pitch. Oh he's investing a few million in this new telehealth app I'm like oh that's great and they're like oh it'll be a fabulous interview with. This will be a fabulous interview with this fabulous rapper and collaborating with other reporters in my newsroom including the health care editor. They said you know what start interviewing analysts health care analysts and then I eventually stumbled upon one person who, not his co founder not another celebrity but someone who just focuses on the inequalities and health care the racial disparities within health care. Upon interviewing this expert this analyst he was just telling me all about. Not just where these disparities stem from and where the distrust between the African American community and the healthcare community started which stems all the way back to slavery. Where they were, you know, not just subjects of experimentation and bad health care but to present day the pandemic, where it just showed how digital, you know, the digital divide where students in urban communities couldn't even learn remotely because there's no good broadband without us investing in the broadband of inner low income communities. How are they ever going to benefit from a telehealth app. So, it just really transformed the story from something that would have been lifestyle to something that really dug into inequalities within this industry of health care so that was just one example of one voice can really just a whole trajectory of a story for me element wise. I, we rely so heavily on, I mean the one thing that TV does that no one else can do is match pictures and sound. So, I look for great photos I look for for a compelling visual moment that I can then put the proper words to and sometimes I put no words to it and I just let the sound on tape do the sort of do all the talking for me. So I'm always looking for great video. Of course, I think a lot of stories need a protagonist and an antagonist to make them compelling. I have one that I did it's totally different than what Tanya talked about but many, many years ago, my first news director gave me this story that he ripped from a newspaper in Utah and he said to me, try to figure this one out. This is a cool little cold case and I'm like, okay, this will be fun. And we ultimately ended up calling the story the legend of Howard Hughes will turns out when billionaire Howard Hughes died he left allegedly a handwritten will. In it he named a gas station attendant that happened to save his life when he was found destitute on the on his way to Las Vegas, and this gas station attendant who I ended up tracking down through the desert of Utah finding him interviewing and he told me he's like this this homeless man stumbled in, and he needed help so I told him just get in my truck and I'll drive you to Vegas and, you know, years after Howard Hughes is dead. In the Mormon church, the LDS church in Salt Lake City came by and dropped off a handwritten will on yellow lined paper and in it this man allegedly was promised 116th of Howard Hughes's fortune, which is far more than in a gas station attendant, especially in Utah is making. And he had been fighting for, for decades to try to get the money that he believes he was rightfully owed and he had been fought by the Hughes estate and he had been fought by grandkids and the the boy scouts of America were involved and LDS and I was able to just follow the trail and there was a quirky story where this man is dying wish was to figure this out and it was just such an interesting story. A man that I would never meet otherwise coming from a town of maybe there were 1000 people in his entire town. I didn't find him by way of social media. I found him by looking through a phone book and calling this place and calling that place and checking at this gas station and this hotel and this, what have you and it was just good old gum investigating and it worked and it was a wonderful story. It didn't necessarily go anywhere except I did make the impression of one piece of delivery man who found me when I was staked outside of who was about to be the governor David Patterson in Albany's home. At the time when Governor Spitzer was going through his midlife crisis slash downfall and leaving the governor's mansion and I ordered a pizza to my news van and the guy delivered the pizza he said, your voice sounds really familiar you sound like this girl that did this story that I happen to see on YouTube about Howard Hughes as well and I was like, we are in slinger lens New York how in the world, did all these worlds come crashing together. So that was one of the most memorable stories I've done and it was because of this man this this uneducated but kind hearted man who simply want what wanted what was owed to him. He ended up dying and not getting the money, although different judges. Terry's codes. Internet looks like it's a little unstable. I love these stories, because it really speaks to the amount of work that goes into actually developing what you ultimately see on the page or in video. I think sometimes we forget all of that sort of good old fashioned reporting and journalism that goes in behind the scenes. You're actually so great. So we're closing in on the top of the hour I have a couple more quick questions that I want to get to you before we give everybody back their evening. A few folks I think that maybe students who have sent through some questions. So I want to make sure that we address those one is what was your favorite class at Fairfield and how, which one do you feel was most beneficial to your career. So just maybe take those very quickly. Mine was John Orman classes, favorite classes. And I still use them I still use all the stuff that he taught me so hands down, but any class that that man was a part of I wanted to be a part of and I still remember and loves. I agree with Dr. Orman as well but I also took Richard Regan's Shakespeare classes as well. Until this day I have all the books still of course my first news writing 101 class with Dr. Simon. That led me to the Fairfield mirror where I wrote my, my first assignment for that class ended up on the front page of the mirror and it was a melody I don't know if you have it still. Exactly. Yeah, so basically, I was just talking to a bunch of friends and they were telling me incidents they ran into and I remember thinking this is not so this is actually where it all started this is when the but bug first bit me this is my first story for my news writing class and it made it might the first front page. And, you know, this was when I realized you can give those who don't have a voice, a voice. This is when you can support underrepresented people. And so in addition to classes, get involved right for the mirror. Join the ham channel. Yeah. Well, that was another question actually is which clubs were involved in and I'll just add to the class question before we move on to that. I took a business writing class, as well as a public speaking class which is required for all comms major so anyone who's a comms major on the call will know that. I think everybody no matter what you major in to take a public speaking class because you will use it no matter which career you go into so on the clubs front though someone did ask is there are there certain clubs that you would recommend joining that sort of helped you figure out your career trajectory to build upon my last example of my first front page near joining a Hannah which was the multicultural multicultural organization was super important everyone who I quoted in that story was a member. So join social organizations to that everything that you both said student government as well really help just figuring out how things go how things run. What sort of impact students can have from that perspective was really beneficial. Well, I want to thank everybody for joining us tonight it's been such a wonderful conversation I've learned a lot speaking to both of you. I apologize if we didn't get to your question you got a lot of great questions in the chat. I want to throw it back to Colleen just to close out the evening but I want to just think thank everyone and if you have further questions perhaps Colleen there's a way that you can get some of those to us and we can help to answer them. Yes, absolutely thank you all three of you this was a great discussion and great questions. We are so grateful for all of you for giving your time and you're all so busy and it is greatly appreciated for sharing your insight with all of us. There's a bunch of upcoming events happening we ask that all of you please visit fairfield.edu slash alumni events for a full calendar to see if there's anything of interest coming up that you like to join us on. And by all means, if you have additional questions for our panelists you can email alumni at fairfield.edu and we will pass them on, and we will make the recording available also to all of you. And if you'd like to view it again and something else pops up, you can reply at that time so thanks to everyone for joining us Tanya Melody Teresa thank you again, and we'll see everyone soon. Colleen can you share I don't know if anybody wants to email shared or their social media handles if anybody has any questions and you guys want to message DM, whatever whatever your preferred social media channel is I'm happy to answer a few if anybody has them just you can reach out to me that we're also by, by my email is fine. I'm happy to also continue this conversation I wish this was in person. So I could meet each of you from all these classes. I know we're all coming from different industries and careers one book I want everyone to read if you haven't yet is William Zinser on writing well that will change the way you write a new story and email a text. It'll change everything so that's one last takeaway for this hopefully of resources and perhaps the links that you shared we can put in the recap email and things like that so I will touch base with all of you and we can share all that with everyone who attended, as well as your contact information so awesome. Well, stay safe, stay healthy. Thank you.