{"id":7217,"date":"2016-03-28T11:43:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T15:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?p=7217"},"modified":"2017-11-01T15:52:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T19:52:05","slug":"elisa-distefano-news-12-long-island","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/elisa-distefano-news-12-long-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Elisa DiStefano, News 12 Long Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"elisa-distefano\"<\/p>\n

\n

Elisa, first off, would you tell me what you currently do for work?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

I am the entertainment and features reporter for News 12 Long Island here in New York. I also do their traffic in the morning. In addition, I contribute feature, entertainment and celebrity articles to a bunch of different magazines. I do expert work at places like the Huffington Post. I also just wrote my first book, so I\u2019ll be a published author in a few weeks!<\/p>\n

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Where did you see yourself going in your career as a student? How did your actual professional path differ from this?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

I always wanted to do what I\u2019m doing now. I had hoped that I\u2019d be doing it at a national level, which I still haven\u2019t achieved yet. It\u2019s a lot more difficult of a climb than I ever expected it to be. I was always under the impression that if you work as hard as you can, you move ahead and move up. I\u2019m happy where I am, but I\u2019ve learned that in this business that isn\u2019t always the case.<\/p>\n

\n

What advice would you give to a student or new graduate looking to follow a similar career path?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

I think that students and recent grads now have so many more tools available for them. For example, if I was in school right now, I would certainly be doing my own video segments and posting them on YouTube, I would be heavily into social media, and I would have a blog. There\u2019s so many things that you can do to get your own experience while waiting to land your first job, or even after. Those things just didn\u2019t exist when I was a recent graduate.<\/p>\n

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In what ways did networking help you achieve your career goals?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

For me, my BU connections got me my internships, and my internships really set me on the path to my career. I did a program that we used to call \u201cDay on the Job.\u201d I don\u2019t know if that exists anymore. I was set up with a BU alum over at NBC and she helped me get my internship at the Weekend Today show, which gave me a love of morning TV and news.<\/p>\n

A BU sorority sister helped me get an internship at VH1. It was my connections at BU that really got me started. Then, once I was in my career and I decided that I wanted to do entertainment and celebrity journalism, my friends at BU who were in Public Relations really helped. They gave me access to red carpets and to events that I wouldn\u2019t otherwise be able to access. And they still do.<\/p>\n

\n

You mentioned you have a new book coming out. Could you tell me a little more about it?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

While preparing for my wedding, I took a great interest in health, nutrition and weight loss. I felt like I was in the best shape of my life with the help of my trainer and nutritionist. So many people had watched me transform, because I\u2019m on TV every day, and had an interest in how I did it, so my nutritionist and I wrote a book called The Bridal Body. It\u2019s the every-bride\u2019s guide to wedding weight loss. It\u2019s my first book, and I hope it\u2019s the first of many.<\/p>\n

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What was your most surreal experience on camera?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

For me it\u2019s always meeting a legend, like Julie Andrews. That was surreal because she\u2019s on a level all of her own, she\u2019s a Hollywood icon and legend. I\u2019ve met a lot of big celebrities but she just stands out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also got to do a lot of cool things, like play tennis with Venus Williams. I flew in the national guard in an airshow, which was just a wild experience because I don\u2019t like heights. I\u2019ve had the opportunity to do things that I\u2019d never ever in a million years think I would do.<\/p>\n

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What is your favorite part of your job?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

I love meeting ordinary people who have extraordinary stories. I love meeting the average joe down the block, and all the sudden you find out he has a unique talent or this crazy collection or does something fantastic for charity. Those stories are my favorite. I love shining a light on stories that would never be recognized otherwise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elisa, first off, would you tell me what you currently do for work? I am the entertainment and features reporter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10949,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"categories":[962,3],"tags":[771,1012,1014,6,1017,1013,1016,1018,1015,923],"bu-publication":[],"discipline-type":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/7217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10949"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/7217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12390,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/7217\/revisions\/12390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7217"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=7217"},{"taxonomy":"discipline-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discipline-type?post=7217"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=7217"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=7217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}