Alisyn Camerota, co-host from Fox and Friends, lent words of wisdom to Mass Communication majors at Iona College on  April 7.  As a Society of Professional Journalists member and journalism fanatic, it was refreshing to have received a guest such as Camerota. Just as everyone else, Camerota started out from the very bottom; she took a quick and sudden interest in journalism while watching her favorite television shows at the age of 15. In order to make her passion for Journalism into a reality, Camerota enrolled into American University, located in the highly-political city Washington, D.C. As a curious and hopeful freshman, Camerota became a news anchor at American University in her on-campus television station.

Once an on-campus anchor for American University, Camerota did not stop there. At the end of her college years and with high hopes of landing a job, she finally landed one prospective interview.

Dedicated and career-driven, Camerota aced the interview and worked on ABC newsman Ted Koppel’s critically acclaimed documentary show, “Nightline.” The beginning of Camerota’s journalism career was not at all glamorous, but yet, diligent along with long work hours.

However, she knew that the life of retrieving dinner and cokes for her boss was not the career she had in mind. Therefore, after two long and enduring years at ABC, she constructed a tape to send out to other companies.

Months later, Camerota landed a job different from what she was used to at ABC. “America’s Most Wanted” was different from what she expected; “Workers at ‘America’s Most Wanted’ were actually smiling and happy, as compared to ABC, where workers did not smile and it was grueling as can be,” Camerota stated.  She spent five years as an interviewer for “America’s Most Wanted,” “It was “hardcore,” she stated.

Following five exciting years, Camerota spent five years in training, practicing and coaching to improve on her stand-ups and voiceovers. One of the most imperative pieces of advice she instructed to the fellow Ionians is to always have mentors if possible.

Mentors are people who lend advice to their protégées and guide them in a way no one else can. Camerota worked herself up to stand-ups and voicing, eventually.

She has worked for NBC along with anchoring in cities such as Boston and Washington, D.C. Alongside her many accomplishments; Camerota has covered breaking news from all over the world. Such as a rape case that involved a priest in Rome, a crisis in Canada, a passing of a royal heir in London and troubling issues in Mexico.

Now, within the 21st Century, there are several ways in which people can get their writing out in the Journalism industry.

According to Camerota, it is very simple, “start writing and cultivate your own beat”.

Being a wife and mother of three, Camerota has proved in a variety of ways that making dreams happen is possible.It is a “wild ride” indeed, as she says but in the end she is content with what she has achieved in her lifetime.