When 4:45 a.m. came and went and her Uber hadn鈥檛 shown up, Ariana Freeman shook off her heels, strapped on a pair of boots and hoofed it 30 minutes to the U.S. Capitol.
Nothing was going to stop the 亚洲AV alumna from covering her first presidential inauguration. Freeman spent the day inside the Capitol Rotunda reporting as a broadcast associate for CBS Evening News.
鈥淚t was absolutely amazing and I鈥檓 just so thankful I got to go,鈥 Freeman said. 鈥淚 was taking it all in.鈥
On Wednesday, her job consisted of working with the pool camera from NBC to inform her senior producer of key happenings behind the scene. When she saw President Joe Biden coming down the hallway, she alerted her producer to get ready to roll the rotunda camera in five seconds.
鈥淵ou see the gifts presentation but, hey, you might have missed [Vice President] Kamala Harris just winked at Sen. Amy Klobuchar,鈥 Freeman said. 鈥淕iving that color, those details that the viewers and correspondents don鈥檛 see, pretty much that was my job鈥攖o catch them coming in, coming out, make sure our cameras were rolling.鈥
Two years ago, Freeman couldn鈥檛 have imagined herself working in politics, let alone covering the 59th presidential inauguration. The former collegiate women鈥檚 basketball player always thought she鈥檇 end up working in sports, possibly as a sideline reporter.
Her master鈥檚 degree, after all, was in sport and recreation studies with a concentration in sport management. She freelanced with the Washington Football Team鈥檚 Charitable Foundation in addition to serving as a features reporter for ESPN+ broadcasts of George Mason men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 basketball games.
But as she finished graduate school in 2019, she ran into a former basketball coach at her alma mater, St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax. He suggested she reach out to a friend of his, Jan Crawford, who served as a political and legal correspondent for CBS News. Hesitant at first to venture into politics, she agreed to shadow at CBS News for a day.
鈥淭he moment I walked into CBS News鈥 I think I just loved the energy I felt,鈥 she said.
By the end of the day, the Washington bureau chief offered her a position as a news associate, essentially an internship position. Two full-time promotions and two years later, she鈥檚 covered press conferences at the White House, was inside the Senate chamber for the 2020 impeachment trial of President Trump and reported on breaking news such as the deadly shooting in a Virginia Beach municipal building. Freeman currently works daily with CBS Evening News host Norah O鈥橠onnell to ensure her script and broadcast is accurate.
鈥淚鈥檓 so new into news that I鈥檓 still learning,鈥 Freeman said. 鈥淚t is definitely way different than sports, but it is just so rewarding. Politics just promote that change I want to see.鈥
Freeman, who received her bachelor鈥檚 degree in journalism at the University of Colorado, credits her professors at Mason for emphasizing the power of networking. She also said the sport management program stressed elements that transcended sports, such as finding 鈥渓ittle nuggets and a different way to tell a story.鈥
鈥淪ome people just have that drive,鈥 said Sport and Recreation Studies Associate Professor Pierre Rodgers, who was Freeman鈥檚 advisor. 鈥淎riana always had a plan to do what she was going to do. She was going to be great no matter where she went.鈥
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