Former Student, Now News Producer, Shares Her Career Knowledge with Journalism Class

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Abigail Anderson speaks to journalism students at NDA

Grace Tressler, Staff Writer

Former student Abigail Anderson, graduate of the class of 1999, visited Notre Dame Tuesday to talk about her career that has brought her back to Green Bay.

Anderson left Notre Dame to pursue an arborist job in Colorado and eventually moved to Maine where her videography career took off.

The NDA grad described college at this point in her life as “holding her back” instead of putting her forward and headed to work after high school, where she got her first videography job which dealt with a Claymation production company.

The connections within this job provided Anderson with music video projects and eventually reality T.V. production, which is where she focused her career for 14 years, working on shows like The Real Housewives and Deadliest Catch.

Anderson’s reality T.V. career recently brought her back to Wisconsin where she got an additional job with WFRV Channel 5 as a News Producer and Associate Producer for the noon show as well as a new local politics section.

“I felt like it was a perfect match,” Anderson said when she described her first few days at WFRV, after declining a job at another local news station.

As a news producer, Anderson creates stories about trending topics and “takes national news and break it down to a local level,” she said.

Anderson said she was not planning on working in Green Bay except for the reality show, called Felon Farm, that she co-created which brought her back to the area.

The former student said she had to learn a lot of new skills in the news producing business, but believes it is “important to be a lifelong learner.”

“You can do anything you want,” said Anderson, encouraging Notre Dame students about the future with a story about her time at the high school.

“Open-minded communication is the key to success,” she said, giving advice about new jobs and opportunities to journalism students at Notre Dame.

Anderson hopes to stay put for a few years and to continue to work on local politics in the Green Bay area as well as the production of the reality show Felon Farm.