I often think back on how the choices we make determine the entire course of our lives. When listening to friends, family and colleagues, how can one tell “good” advice from “bad” if both are delivered with the best intentions? For me, it was a matter of listening to my heart and following my dreams. Thankfully, NYIT helped make it happen.

I was working as a morning news anchor for a Long Island radio station when I decided to switch to television news. The only problem? I didn’t know how to do it. A friend mentioned NYIT’s Emmy award-winning news program, LI News Tonight, which is produced by students and airs nightly on Long Island cable television.

Joining this news team meant going back to school for a master’s degree, which did not interest me. Nonetheless, I stopped by the television studio in Education Hall at the Old Westbury campus to check it out.

Put simply, it was a day that changed my life.

I was impressed with the whole operation. Aspiring reporters and fledgling videographers were sent out into the field with professional equipment. I accompanied one group of students as they spent the day covering the news alongside some of New York City’s top journalists. The student reporters returned to campus later that day, finished their scripts and edited pieces that aired a short time later. It was all so exciting. I knew I wanted to be part of it.

I quit my morning anchor job and went to NYIT full time. Thanks to Associate Professor Anthony Piazza, I was granted a teacher assistantship. This enabled me to use my radio experience to help teach undergraduates about news writing and other skills in exchange for a scholarship.

Although I enjoyed all of my communication arts classes, I was especially dedicated to the LI News Tonight program. Eventually, I was given the chance to produce my own three-part special report on water pollution. I worked on my 15-minute special for weeks. Professor Ken Eckhardt, news director and anchor for LI News Tonight, even showed me how to lock up the studio at night after everyone else had gone. I wasn’t thinking about how the project might benefit me down the road. I was simply passionate about the subject.

My hard work paid off and showed me that when you do what you love, everything else falls into place. In addition to getting an “A” on the assignment, I won a Folio award from the Long Island Coalition for Fair Broadcasting (now the Fair Media Council), where I competed against professional news reporters. At the awards ceremony, I met the head of Long Island’s TV-55, who offered me an anchor job soon afterward. I graduated from NYIT with a 4.0 grade point average and a job doing what I love.

But what if I had not visited NYIT that day? What if I had followed the advice of well-meaning friends who discouraged me from going back to school? Would I be living my lifelong dream of being a TV news anchor? Well, I’m glad I followed my heart.