Emmy Award Winner, 2000 FTG Grad, Speaks to Students
Launch the media gallery 1 playerEmmy-award winning journalist and Fort Gibson native Sara Sheffield Forhetz returned to her alma mater on Thursday, April 14, 2016, to speak with members of the Fort Gibson High School Fellowship of Christian Athletes and high school journalism students about the challenges and rewards of a career in the field of broadcast news journalism. “If you get into this field, you have to have a passion for journalism,” Forhetz said, “because in the beginning, the pay is low and the hours are bad, but if you stick it out, you will make it.” Forhetz, a 2000 graduate of Fort Gibson High School, told students she only made $8.50 per hour when she first began her career at a small news station in Sherman, Texas. “It was barely enough to live on, but I did it.” In addition to adjusting to the low pay scale, Forhetz said she also had to get used to the long hours news reporting requires. “It’s a 24-hour job every day.” There are no holidays in a news room.” Despite the hardships of her early career, Forhetz encouraged the students to pursue what she believes to be a very exciting and rewarding career. “Every day in my job is completely different from the one before, and I find that exciting. There is also so much growth potential in this field. The sky is really the limit.” Forhetz, who now works as a reporter and anchor for KY3, an NBC affiliate station in Springfield, Missouri, won an Emmy in 2015, along with photographer Jerrod McCuelly, for their coverage of a medical mission trip to Haiti. “I was amazed and super grateful to have won for that particular story because I felt it was a mission from God. That one story inspired people from the Springfield area to send financial support to children in Haiti, which is one of the poorest countries on the planet. 2500 children now have a sponsor because of this one story, and that means a great deal to me.” Forhetz’s enthusiastic presentation made an impact on the high school students who sat attentively in the same auditorium seats Forhetz once sat in as a student at Fort Gibson High School. “Listening to Sarah speak today really fed my passion for journalism,” shared Fort Gibson junior and yearbook student Camerin James. “She is a very inspirational person.”