Entering her fourth year at Cal Poly, Hope Hanselman has made extraordinary accomplishments in her student career. Hope is soft-spoken and undeniably charming, but also persistent and courageous in her role as a journalist. Her dedication to broadcast journalism landed her a part-time MMJ position at KSBY, the Central Coast’s local news station.
I interviewed Hope on a Sunday afternoon at the KSBY station.
Her job as a reporter never stops. Occasionally, at a pause in our interview, Hope would check her Facebook messages. She was gathering information from a source about a missing person whose body was found. KSBY was waiting to hear from police reports if the body was identified as Brett Olson, a Cal Poly student who disappeared during a river float trip near Chico.
Hope became interested in journalism because she loved to write and tell stories. She thought she would be a columnist for a magazine until a friend introduced her to broadcast.
“It’s a combination of meeting the right people at the right time. I had a friend who was in CPTV and said they needed more people in the class. I was like, ‘I’m in!’ Hope said.
Cal Poly Television (CPTV) is Cal Poly’s on-campus news station.
The class was difficult, she said.
“CPTV is the most — well it will turn your hair gray! I didn’t have any experience writing broadcast, I couldn’t shoot, I couldn’t read the scripts,” Hope said. “Basically in that class you get the chance to be a producer, a reporter, an anchor, a technical director, a production technician and a photographer. You learn everything all at once, in one class!”
Hope wasn’t very good at juggling all the different roles in broadcast, she said, but she wanted to become amazing at it. There was something addicting about broadcast, and she kept coming back for more.
She started her first day of work at KSBY completely prepared because she had broadcast experience from CPTV.
“I love my job here. I’ve done some pretty crazy stories and I have some pretty crazy stories to tell,” she said.
Hope was assigned to report a story about wounded veterans going on a fishing trip, paid for by community members.
“I was out on the boat, in a light sweater in heels. I didn’t realize the boat was going to be a couple miles off shore! We spent four hours out there and I was honestly throwing up the entire time! I had my microphone in one hand and I was throwing up off the side of the boat!”
Nonetheless, Hope got the story and felt ten times better once she stepped on shore.
Besides rocking around a boat in heels, Hope has reported some inspiring stories. One of the most interesting people she has interviewed was a woman who owns a horse sanctuary in San Miguel, she said. Children with autism and learning disabilities come out every week to the sanctuary. Visiting the horses serves as a form of therapy for them, Hope said.
“I drive back from stories like that and I’m smiling the whole time because I’m just so happy to have that kind of connection,” she said.
Fun Fact: She was a Dairy Princess her first year at Cal Poly. A Dairy Princess is a representative for the California Milk advisory board.
Extracurricular Activities: WOW Leader 2010-2011, Dairy Club, Cal Poly Broadcasters Association