Jessica Blank ’11, six months on the job at NBC Nightly News, already has filmed and edited a news segment that now is on the NBC website. And, to top it off, the segment features a fellow alumnus.
Blank pitched a story about Chuck Fox ’70 and his successful Community Bikes and got the green light to shoot the story for the web.
She interviewed Fox at the village of Hamilton warehouse where he and his fellow volunteers collect unwanted bicycles, clean and repair them, and provide them for free to individuals throughout central New York and in two international locations.
Blank returned to the village April 14-15 to interview Fox and to film the latest giveaway in the nearby city of Oneida. More than 350 bicycles were donated to area residents.
The 2011 graduate, who majored in English, started working at NBC in November as a desk assistant. She took video camera classes on her days off so she could be ready to film the Community Bikes story.
“I was so excited to shoot and edit this piece, and had so much fun doing it,” she said. “It was my first one and it means a lot to me that it was related to 51, and, of course, the amazing Chuck Fox!”