Early in my career, I had one special mentor who taught me so much. As a professional, I looked up to and admired this person. Some of the advice and lessons that I was taught still remains with me to this day.
As such, I made a pledge to him and to myself to pass the same courtesy and consideration to other young people in the business. Helping young people enter the business is actually one of the most rewarding features of my job.
One person that's made me very proud is Jared Plushnick. I've know Jared since he was 12 years old. For a 12 year old, I was amazed at his ambition and goals.
Jared's dream is to become a meteorologist. For the past few years, he's been shadowing me at the TV station and has done everything he can to learn the art of forecasting weather.
Now at Penn State, he's on the air with the Centre County report. He's not even out of college and already he looks and sounds like a professional meteorologist on air.
Jared has a bright future ahead of him and while he's now an adult, I still remember that young boy full of enthusiasm, energy and drive. I can only hope my twin girls have that same energy growing up!
For a look at Jared's work, navigate to:
http://commedia.psu.edu/displayMedia/ccr_newscasts/?selectedDate=20080222&calDate=2008-02-22
