Twenty-two-year-old Anderson High alumna Renee Rose Bell, now Renee Young, is living her dreams as a junior attending the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.
One month after graduating high school, she married her high school sweetheart, Joshua Paul Young, who joined the U.S. Air Force in April 2006. He is the son of Paul and Karen Young of Anderson.Her husband is currently stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, working as a diet therapist at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center.
“We live about five miles away from Washington, D.C., so it has been pretty exciting for me, coming from a small town like Anderson, to be able to get deeply involved in this political environment,” Renee Young said Tuesday, Oct. 27, during a telephone interview with the Valley Post.
She is the third of five siblings born and raised by Jim and Lori Bell of Anderson.The former cross country, track and basketball standout attended Shasta College. She earned an associate’s degree in mass communication with specialties in radio, television and film from Prince George’s Community College in Maryland.
“I was a dancer in high school, so I love being on stage,” said Mrs. Young, who aspires to be a television news anchor someday.
Currently, she is two months into an internship with the Washington, D.C., Bureau of Fox News. One of her university professors works at the Washington Post newspaper and several of the faculty at Philip Merrill are recipients of journalism’s highest honor, the Pulitzer Prize.
“This is an amazing program. I am in the Limited Enrollment Program so our classes are small, usually only 12 of us to a class,” she said.
Encouraged by her professors to try for an internship with a real news organization, Renee Young was thrilled when she landed a spot with Fox News.
“Previously, I had an offer to work at CNN in their Pentagon Bureau, but I chose Fox. I had learned from other students who have interned at CNN that their experience did not have a lot of hands-on opportunity,” Young said.
She started a 12-week internship in September and almost immediately was assigned the job of greeting guests for some of Fox News’ biggest shows like Fox and Friends, Happening Now and The Live Desk. The 12-week internship has also recently expanded into a nine-month opportunity with an additional summer-long internship at Fox News’ bureau in New York City.
“I certainly didn’t ever expect to be greeting guests like former Massachusetts Governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney,” Young said, explaining that her job description entails helping the guests feel comfortable and prepared before going on camera.
To do that, Young starts her day at 6 a.m. making sure the Green Room is ready for guests and that the latest news reports are gathered and made available on each guest’s particular topic of interest.During her internship she has already met such Washington power brokers and celebrities as Carl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Romney and “Liz” Cheney Perry, the elder of two daughters of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
“I was very surprised to know how nice and polite all of the guests are,” she commented.
While working at Fox News, young has also bumped into, rubbed shoulders with or been introduced to such on-air celebrities as Greta Van Susteren, Bill O’Reilly, Neil Cavuto and Shannon Bream.
“They love to give interns advice,” Young said of her conversations with the network guests. For her efforts, Young was recently named Fox News Washington Bureau’s “Intern of the Week” and an interview with her can be found at Fox News Channel University, http://fncu.foxnews.com
In her spare time, Renee Young has offered her services to the Valley Post as an East Coast correspondent covering Operation Rising Star, the Air Force’s version of “American Idol.”
Young is particularly interested in the competition, which starts Nov. 6 with a week of training for all 12 contestants, because fellow Anderson High alumna Jamie Horner Jarman will compete Nov. 15-21 and anyone, including home town boosters, can vote. But I’ll allow Renee Young to tell that story.
Scripps Interactive Newspaper Group
©2009 The E.W. Scripps Co.