A television reporter and fill-in anchor who earned a journalism degree at Michigan State University has become one of the state’s youngest-ever Emmy Award winners. Hannah Saunders, ’11, works the morning news shift at WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids.

 

She recently snared a coveted statuette for a story that exposed a fraudulent local panhandler.Turns out he wasn't’ a homeless veteran after all.

 

Saunders graduated from Hartland High School in 2008 and came to MSU to study nursing. In her off hours, she worked for a retailer in town. During one of her shifts, the store was robbed.

 

A conversation with a TV cameraman covering the crime piqued her interest in a journalism career. It wasn't long before she changed majors, graduating with an MSU communications degree three years ago.

 

From there, it was a short hop to a reporting job at Lansing's WILX-TV. Her favorite assignments there included interviewing former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, reporting from the sidelines at MSU football games and riding shotgun in a Michigan State Police helicopter on the lookout for illegal marijuana.

 

Saunders' work has also led to recent Associated Press and Edward R. Murrow reporting awards. 

 

You may follow this up- and-coming reporter on Facebook.