I self-constructed a Broadcast Journalism major, which they let you do. I don't know what they do now, but back then. So I self-constructed it. They said you've still got to do this, this and this. But yeah, you can do it. I'm like, "Yeah!"

Every kid has their favorite TV show. For most, it was cartoons. But for 1992 FLC graduate Chris Schauble, it was the evening news.

That early obsession led to a career in broadcast journalism to span 30 years, five Daytime Emmy Awards, and six Golden Mics. These days, Chris is the morning news anchor for KTLA, a television station in Southern California serving the second largest media market in the United States. Chris often calls his work as a journalist "like having a backstage pass to life."

I love that school. It was perfect for me. You know, I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. Fort Lewis was the other side of the Rocky Mountains. And for me, that was a great opportunity. It was six hours away. So it was fun and far, but not too far. So I started summer courses almost immediately after I graduated, and that basically allowed me to graduate from Fort Lewis in three years because I kept staying there year round. If you look on the wall here, you're gonna see Peabodies, you're gonna see Emmys, you're gonna see Golden Microphones, which is the Radio and Television News Directors Association. A lot of history, you know, a lot of cool stuff. Just a lot of good journalism over the years. I self-constructed a Broadcast Journalism major because at that time it didn't exist at Fort Lewis. Communications existed but not a Broadcast Journalism.

Today, Fort Lewis offers a four year degree in Journalism and Multimedia Studies.

Larry Hartsfield was one of my professors. Back then, you had to take a class called Intro to Mass Communication. He passingly said, you know, you're pretty good at this, you might want to look into it. And that simple statement sparked a brush fire because I had always liked watching TV news. I just didn't really think it was a viable career option for me. And here I am, almost 30 years later, still in TV news in Los Angeles

This is our control room where basically the newscast is produced from whenever it's live. So you've got a producer. Everything's electronic now, so you have directors. They don't push as many buttons as they used to.

It's cliche to say to say that you can do anything. But I would say you can do almost anything you want to do, and don't feel that you're limited because you're, you know, in the rocky mountains of Colorado. Whatever it is you're thinking in your head that you may want to pursue or do, there's a world of opportunity out there for you. For example, there's huge and renowned journalism schools at Northwestern, Syracuse, Missouri. Guess what? They have a lot of graduates that would love to be where I am right now. But I came from Fort Lewis College. You know, don't let anything stop you from pursuing your dream and knowing that you are absolutely good enough.