Meghan Mistry
Reflecting on her four years at Syracuse University, senior broadcast and digital journalism student Meghan Mistry knows that she is well prepared to enter the workforce following what has been four years full of learning, career experience and memories.
The Houston, Texas, native in the Newhouse School of Public Communications also has two minors—one in Middle Eastern studies and the other in political science in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Mistry is a current anchor and reporter for CitrusTV, the student-run campus television station, where she also formerly served as an executive producer.
Outside of career-centric activities, she also serves as an orientation leader and previously was involved with the freshman leadership program, OrangeSeeds. She shares more of her Orange story below.
The main reason I came to Syracuse is for the school’s renowned broadcast journalism program. However, I highly considered not coming to school at all for my first year, or starting off somewhere closer to home because my mom was terminally ill. Both she and my dad really wanted me to start at Syracuse despite the situation at home.
I was really hesitant and frankly incredibly scared, but Dean [Lorraine] Branham and Associate Dean [Rossana] Grassi of the Newhouse School helped put a few things in place for me in the event that I did need to go home to spend time with my mom. [Mistry’s mother passed away in the spring of 2014.]
The thing I’m most proud of is definitely placing in the top 10 for the Hearst Feature Television Competition, qualifying as a Hearst Semi-Finalist. [The Hearst Journalism Awards Program provides support, encouragement and assistance to journalism education at the college and university level, and awards scholarships to students for outstanding performance in college-level journalism.] I now have the chance to enter three more reporting packages, and if I make it to the finals I will be flown to San Francisco to compete. I always wanted to apply for the competition so to be chosen as the school’s representative and to actually place is something I’m really proud of. I also put immense amounts of work into the two reports I submitted.
Beyond that, I think I’m most proud of getting into graduate school at the London School of Economics. I never considered going to graduate school but once I found the LSE program I decided I would apply and just see how it pans out. To actually get in and now be able to go is something I never even thought I’d have the opportunity to do.
The upper-level broadcast classes have been the most helpful preparing for my future. My professors are some of the best in their field, and are incredibly talented professionals, and some are still active journalists. The upper-level classes give you a day to put together a full report and shoot the whole story.
The capstone class gives you one day to put together an entire newscast with the rest of the class, where each student has a different position (reporter, producer, social media producer). These prepare you for the real world because as a journalist, you’ll have only a few hours to shoot and edit your own story. The professors give really detailed feedback and are really invested in making you get better and succeed, so I’ve really found these classes to be both challenging and rewarding.
I’m a really driven person that doesn’t like to sit still or waste time, so I sought internships early and have been lucky enough to have a few. After freshman year I worked as a paid correspondent for The Galveston County Daily News.
After sophomore year I was a news intern for the NBC affiliate in Houston, KPRC. And after junior year I worked both as a news intern for the NBC affiliate WOODTV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and as a shot selector for NBC Sports during the Summer Olympics.
After graduation I will do a one-year master’s degree at the London School of Economics in politics and communication. I’ll essentially study the relationship between political theory and the media, and how media influences the actual political landscape of a situation. Post-LSE I hope to pursue a job as a political reporter or focus on international news.
All I have done and accomplished at Syracuse definitely couldn’t have been possible without the support of my dad (my number one fan), my siblings and the professors that pushed me, let me cry in their office hours and spent countless hours critiquing my work.
