For Kristin Siemon (LACM '90), a BCC degree in communications opened the door to the fast-paced world of television news - and she loved it!
    "There's a daily adrenaline rush to meet deadline opportunities, to travel, to meet lots of new people, etc.," Kristin said.
     "I have covered everything from little daily car wrecks to an execution, to the Susan Smith story, the plane crash in Charlotte, lots and lots of big stories, lots of sad stories."
     Kristin loves seeing projects from start to finish. While working in TV, she shot and edited all of her pieces. "What you shot that day made it to the air that night so you got to see your finished product immediately."
     The sense of immediacy and constant travel eventually became difficult for Kristin to keep up with as she started her family, so she began working in video production. "I wanted to start a family and I knew I needed a job with a more predictable schedule that was less physical," she said. (She now juggles work with an infant.)
     Today she works as the chief editor/photographer for a small production company: Video Graphics of Greensburg, PA. She does some shooting, but mostly edits the video projects which include mainly corporate work, such as commercials and industrial projects, including a recent promotional video for Powdermill Nature Preserve, part of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. She appreciates the fact that she has more time now to spend on projects and can be a little more creative.
     Her advice to others hoping to enter the field? "I love being a photographer, my dearest passion. But be prepared to not get paid well at first, work long hours when breaking news happens and seeing the best and worst the world has to offer."
     She appreciates all that BCC did to prepare her for her career.
     "Broome was a great place to start! The program was wonderful. We got to learn everything that was going to be presented to us when we got out of college."
     That was not always the case with colleagues of hers who went to a different school. They often bemoaned the fact that they didn't get to do as much hands-on work at their schools as she had at Broome. She did an internship at WICZ-TV in Binghamton while still going to school and was hired there before she had even graduated. She worked there awhile, and then moved on to WBNG-TV in Binghamton. There she worked as the photographer/editor on the award-winning Action News for Kids, something she is particularly proud of. "It was probably the best part of my career," she says.
     She left Binghamton to go to Charlotte, North Carolina to another TV station, this time to do television news.
      "When I started there, I really didn't know what I was doing. I'd never done news. It was a whole new ball game. I had to learn live trucks, cameras, editing systems."
     Though it was a stressful time in her career, she enjoyed it, even meeting her husband as they both covered a fire, he working as a cameraman from a competing station.
      "If anyone wants to have an exciting career for awhile, do television news," Kristin said. Though she enjoys it now, she did not have aspirations to do this job when she was young. She sort of fell into it because she loved to take pictures and has worked hard to learn all she can at each new job. She attributes that attitude to helping her make it in a profession dominated by men.
     "I guess I have some creativity that lead me into this field and has helped me be in it for 13 years."
     Her efforts and talent have caught the attention of her former professor, John Butchko at BCC. Kristin's picture is on his alumni wall of fame-graduates in communication who have gone on to great things. Kristin has certainly used her BCC degree to open doors.

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