By Elizabeth Condall
Caitlin Richards is a William Peace Alumni who graduated in 2020. She graduated with a Communications degree and currently works as a multimedia journalist for CBS 17.
Richard came back to visit Peace Mar. 8. She talked about her time at Peace.
“Any advice Marti Maguire and Roger Christman give you soak it in because writing and the Peace Times set me up well,” said Richards.
She also gave students a career map of her time since leaving Peace and talked about her current job.
Before graduation, Richards went on a trip to Mexico to help Roger Christman,the Department head for communications at Peace, to make a documentary in Mexico.
When the group came back they only had a couple weeks on campus, this was right before the COVID-19 lockdowns in the United States took place.
Richards decided to take a month off to figure out what she was going to do as a senior about to graduate.
“I knew I wanted to be a reporter,” said Richards.
After graduation, Richards went to London where she received her master’s degree in Television Journalism from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Her passion for news reporting and journalism started while she was still at Peace and writing for The Peace Times as the Editor-in-Chief.
Richards interned at WRAL, but her first job after graduation was at WNCT covering stories throughout eastern North Carolina.
Richards credits her skills in Final Cut and Premiere Pro to Roger Christman the Department head for the communications at Peace.
“Being a multimedia journalist you have no editor at all so the more front and back you know about Final Cut and Premiere Pro is what the news industry standard is and you’ll be good,” said Richards.
Later Richards told the class about her most interesting stories that she reported on, one being a standoff that took place for three hours in front of a suspect’s house
“So here’s Caitlin and her big tripod and a camera front and center thinking I don’t know how this is going to go down,” said Richards.
Recently Richards attended the Peace Times showcase and showed her support to the students who were presenting their contributions and work for the semester.
Lucy A. Hood, an award-winning journalist, editor and reporter also came to visit Peace April 26.
She spoke to the international communications class and shared stories of her time in Guatemala where she stayed for more than six years.
Hood has been an editor, reporter and content specialist for over 20 years. She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a journalism and Spanish degree.
She was a foreign correspondent for nine years and covered Guatemala’s decades long civil war, their first democratic election in 30 years, along with working to end strife in El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Currently Hood is a freelance journalist working on a pitch for a new book.