By Juliana Dellamarggio
The Harrington School of Communication and Media hosted the 2018 Christiane Amanpour Lecture Series on October 24, delivered by Carole Radziwill, a journalist, best-selling author, and longtime cast member of “The Real Housewives of New York City.”
To get the day started, Radziwill took a tour of campus with Dr. Adam Roth, director of the Harrington School and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Justin Wyatt, associate director of the Harrington School. Stops along the tour included Hillside Hall, the Harrington School Living and Learning Community, and the dining hall.
After the tour, Radziwill met with 30 students from the Harrington School in an intimate setting in Ranger Hall. Students were able to ask her questions about her career and how to succeed in the communications field.
Amanda Seebeck, a senior public relations major, is a big fan of Radziwill. When she found out she was coming to campus, she knew she had to attend. Luckily, she was one of the 30 to meet Radziwill and enjoyed every minute of it.
“I liked how she was very relatable and funny,” Seebeck said. “She was asking us questions and seemed to really care about what we had to say as well. She was here to talk about her professional past but it was like she was talking to a group of her close friends.”
Radziwill then met with the media to answer more questions about her work and future plans.
Finally, it was time for the lecture. After a great introduction from Christiane Amanpour via video recording about Radziwill’s life and career, Radziwill took the stage and proceeded to captivate the audience.
The lecture started with Radziwill talking about her early life. She explained that when she was a student at Hunter College, she had her aha moment when watching the Challenger liftoff and subsequent tragedy. As she was watching the coverage that followed, she knew that journalism was exactly what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
After this realization, she proceed to take steps to make her dream come true. She secured an internship at ABC, which was the top news outlet at that time.
She talked about how she went to countless job and career fairs with her resume, handing it out in hopes that it would get her to where she wanted to be. One day, it finally did. She gave it to someone who passed it on to the head of “20/20”. From there, she was called in for an interview and eventually got an internship in post-production of “20/20,” which led to her working for Peter Jennings.
Soon the internship turned into a full-time job. Radziwill told stories of the many news events that she covered while at ABC under the guidance of Jennings, including covering foreign policy stories in Cambodia.
Radziwill pointed out that journalists are different from regular people.
“Journalists are not afraid of the things normal people are,” Radziwill said. “You need to be curious by nature and training, and you always need to be asking questions about ideas and people.”
In addition to her journalism career, Radziwill also spoke about her 7-year stint from 2011-2018 as a cast member on the “Real Housewives of New York City.” She mentioned that being in front of the cameras was extremely different than being behind them
Although Radziwill’s lecture had many memorable moments, the advice she gave throughout resonated with most students.