As an aspiring political reporter, Kyle Stewart ’18 has watched NBC’s “Meet the Press” for as long as he can remember. Now, he’ll be working on the long-running television news program as the 2018-19 Tim Russert Fellow at NBC News.
Named for the former “Meet the Press” host, the Tim Russert Fellowship is a one-year, paid position in the NBC News Washington, D.C. Bureau, where one fellow works in several areas, including “Meet the Press” and the NBC News Political Unit. Intended as a “boot camp” in political journalism, the fellow’s responsibilities include assisting talent and producers and participating in news shoots and story research.
“I’m looking forward to learning as much as possible from all of the experienced journalists at NBC News,” said Stewart, a former Park Scholar who graduated with a journalism degree from Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications. “This is an incredible opportunity to be mentored by reporters and producers who have been working in political journalism longer than I’ve been alive in some instances. I look at it like journalism grad school in the real world.”
During his time at Ithaca College, Stewart worked at the college’s student-run television station and newspaper, ICTV and The Ithacan. He also participated in several experiential learning trips organized by faculty members Anthony Adornato and James Rada, covering the 2016 Republican presidential primary in South Carolina for NBC and the inauguration of President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C for PBS. Footage he shot during the primary aired on NBC’s “Nightly News with Lester Holt.”
“I can’t thank Ithaca College enough for all of the student media opportunities, which allowed me to refine the skills I learned in the classroom,” said Stewart. “ICTV and The Ithacan are made up of the most talented and passionate students I’ve met, and I was lucky enough to learn from them every day.”