Though I always loved a camera :) I've been involved in performing in some way my whole life. I started like many little girls do, in a pink tutu and ballet shoes. I moved on to tap, jazz, lyrical, competitive dance, the whole thing. I took voice lessons through middle school and high school, and I was involved in theater from the age of 10. By the time I was leaving high school I actually think I was pretty good.
So when it came time to decide on a University and a major, it was hard to tell the theater no. But I knew it is a life of auditioning and rejection and call backs and moving on and waitressing and you truly have to have a heart full of a special kind of love to do it. That love has to be your purpose for living. It has to drive you every single day to wake up, to audition, to understand you might not get this one and to say you'll try again tomorrow. And more than saying you'll try again, it has to drive you to actually do it. About a profession in theater, I was once told if I could picture myself doing anything else, I should.
And I could.
It was television.
Today at CBS, someone asked me how I ended up in television and I was glad they asked. I really had to think about it. I was always interested in a lot of things and for a while it's why I struggled to settle on a career. I love travel and thought I wanted to work on cruise ships. I love English and thought I wanted to teach it. I love weddings and thought I wanted to plan them. But television is a career where you are allowed to be interested in so many things. Each time you meet someone or do a story, you become a bit of an expert in that subject. When I was at NBC, we did a story on citrus greening and I became a bit of an expert on a tiny part of that world. That intrigues me in so many ways about television. You can learn forever. You can know so much.
For a girl who naturally needs to know and needs to understand, news is everything to me.
I also ended up here because of the type of person I am. I am to the point. I do not waste time. I need something to be right the very first time. So when I learned broadcast writing is about saying what you have to say in as few words as possible and saying it in a way the listener would understand the first very time, I was hooked.
I wish everyone was so succinct and forthcoming.
At the CBS News Internship Program Orientation two days ago, Jeff Fager came to speak to the interns. Jeff Fager has been at CBS for 32 years and is the current Chairman of CBS News and Executive Producer of 60 Minutes. I love that he did that because it proved to me what I already know, which is that CBS does an amazing job placing value on their interns and trust in what the program is designed to do. Jeff gave us a lot of advice as we began the internship: stay in touch with the people you meet, be assertive and take advantage of the opportunities you're given.
I appreciated hearing all of those things, but what I loved best of all was the extremely candid conversation Jeff engaged us in about television. He said the best reporters are the best of people in terms of building relationships. He said CBS aims to help people better understand what's happening in the world we live in. He said CBS covers what's interesting and what's important.
He said, "I've seen the world at CBS News."
That.
I've seen the world at CBS News.
What a way to spend your life.
He went on to clarify that at the same time, the craft is a calling and a real responsibility to help the audience. It's just not a burden to take lightly. But if you can take it, you can see the world at CBS News.
It was in that moment listening to Jeff Fager that I reached an intense clarity about my reasons for choosing news. Every single thing you could watch on the news takes place in a moment of unity. Between the anchors and the audience, between the anchors and the reporters, between the reporters and the audience. There is this innate sense of togetherness. Together with an anchor, a reporter, a producer, a cameraman and a sound guy, you can go anywhere and see anything for the story, for the responsibility, or just for the adventure.
Later on at Orientation, we heard from a group of 17 CBS employees who were all once interns. Again, another example of how CBS truly values the process and the ability to turn these 10 weeks as an intern into a career at CBS News. This one particular employee told us he started his internship with 48 Hours on September 10th, 2001, also known as the day before 9/11. On being an intern on that day, he said "it was intense but it taught me I was in the right place."
It was in that specific moment I learned I want to be in the right place for the rest of my life.
Being where I'm at now, having covered Hilary Clinton, Lisa Ling, Arianna Huffington and more, the advice I was given about becoming an actress is as true as it's ever been. Back then, I could picture myself doing something else. And now that I've found that something else, I cannot picture myself doing any other thing.
I don't know what network it will be at and I don't know where I'll begin, but I do know television is the absolute only way I could spend my life.
Who knows, someday I, too, might see the world at CBS News.
You heard it here first,
Jordan
P.S I do happen to have a full scale plan of how I will one day return to the theater and make my Broadway debut. But that is another blog post for another day :)
So when it came time to decide on a University and a major, it was hard to tell the theater no. But I knew it is a life of auditioning and rejection and call backs and moving on and waitressing and you truly have to have a heart full of a special kind of love to do it. That love has to be your purpose for living. It has to drive you every single day to wake up, to audition, to understand you might not get this one and to say you'll try again tomorrow. And more than saying you'll try again, it has to drive you to actually do it. About a profession in theater, I was once told if I could picture myself doing anything else, I should.
And I could.
It was television.
Today at CBS, someone asked me how I ended up in television and I was glad they asked. I really had to think about it. I was always interested in a lot of things and for a while it's why I struggled to settle on a career. I love travel and thought I wanted to work on cruise ships. I love English and thought I wanted to teach it. I love weddings and thought I wanted to plan them. But television is a career where you are allowed to be interested in so many things. Each time you meet someone or do a story, you become a bit of an expert in that subject. When I was at NBC, we did a story on citrus greening and I became a bit of an expert on a tiny part of that world. That intrigues me in so many ways about television. You can learn forever. You can know so much.
For a girl who naturally needs to know and needs to understand, news is everything to me.
I also ended up here because of the type of person I am. I am to the point. I do not waste time. I need something to be right the very first time. So when I learned broadcast writing is about saying what you have to say in as few words as possible and saying it in a way the listener would understand the first very time, I was hooked.
I wish everyone was so succinct and forthcoming.
At the CBS News Internship Program Orientation two days ago, Jeff Fager came to speak to the interns. Jeff Fager has been at CBS for 32 years and is the current Chairman of CBS News and Executive Producer of 60 Minutes. I love that he did that because it proved to me what I already know, which is that CBS does an amazing job placing value on their interns and trust in what the program is designed to do. Jeff gave us a lot of advice as we began the internship: stay in touch with the people you meet, be assertive and take advantage of the opportunities you're given.
I appreciated hearing all of those things, but what I loved best of all was the extremely candid conversation Jeff engaged us in about television. He said the best reporters are the best of people in terms of building relationships. He said CBS aims to help people better understand what's happening in the world we live in. He said CBS covers what's interesting and what's important.
He said, "I've seen the world at CBS News."
That.
I've seen the world at CBS News.
What a way to spend your life.
He went on to clarify that at the same time, the craft is a calling and a real responsibility to help the audience. It's just not a burden to take lightly. But if you can take it, you can see the world at CBS News.
It was in that moment listening to Jeff Fager that I reached an intense clarity about my reasons for choosing news. Every single thing you could watch on the news takes place in a moment of unity. Between the anchors and the audience, between the anchors and the reporters, between the reporters and the audience. There is this innate sense of togetherness. Together with an anchor, a reporter, a producer, a cameraman and a sound guy, you can go anywhere and see anything for the story, for the responsibility, or just for the adventure.
Later on at Orientation, we heard from a group of 17 CBS employees who were all once interns. Again, another example of how CBS truly values the process and the ability to turn these 10 weeks as an intern into a career at CBS News. This one particular employee told us he started his internship with 48 Hours on September 10th, 2001, also known as the day before 9/11. On being an intern on that day, he said "it was intense but it taught me I was in the right place."
It was in that specific moment I learned I want to be in the right place for the rest of my life.
Being where I'm at now, having covered Hilary Clinton, Lisa Ling, Arianna Huffington and more, the advice I was given about becoming an actress is as true as it's ever been. Back then, I could picture myself doing something else. And now that I've found that something else, I cannot picture myself doing any other thing.
I don't know what network it will be at and I don't know where I'll begin, but I do know television is the absolute only way I could spend my life.
Who knows, someday I, too, might see the world at CBS News.
You heard it here first,
Jordan
P.S I do happen to have a full scale plan of how I will one day return to the theater and make my Broadway debut. But that is another blog post for another day :)
RSS Feed