Veteran journalist Anderson Cooper will speak at 7:30 p.m. Saturday via Zoom as the second guest of the Distinguished Speaker Series.
According to Cooper’s biography on CNN, he is the anchor of Anderson Cooper 360°and has also worked in more than forty countries and covered major news events around the world, often reporting from the scene.
Director of Student Activities Cindy Mata-Vasquez said Cooper has been in the shortlist of speakers for some time and they’re happy he accepted to speak to the UTRGV community.
“We selected the date of November because we knew it was right after the elections,” Mata-Vasquez said. “We’re hoping that by then we’ll know [the] kind of the trajectory that we’ll be on. And we felt that having been a reporter who’s covered elections in the past, he’s got the experience. He’s also moderated debates that he could also kind of give us an insight as to things that we may all be wondering and just trying to figure out.”
The event will be moderated by communication associate professor Aje-Ori Agbese.
Agbese said she is excited to speak with Cooper on what it is like to do journalism at a high level.
“He is the kind of person who I would say has put his fingers in different pots in journalism,” she said. “He’s had a talk show, he’s covered wars. So, he’s covered the spectrum, I think of television journalism. So that’s really exciting to get someone who is so multi-dimensional, if that makes sense, instead of just, you know, news, news, news, you can talk about different things.”
While Cooper is a journalist, Agbese said his talk could impact other majors such as political science, sociology, communication, health sciences and history.
“So, I believe that if you see him as only a journalist, you miss out on the bigger picture,” Agbese said. “So, I don’t think UTRGV students or the community as a whole should think Anderson Cooper [as] simply for the communication folks. I think if you’re interested in what’s going on in the country, he’s a good person to talk about that and share his thoughts on if you’re interested in politics. He definitely has something to say there, if you’re interested in learning about the world, then definitely. So there are many angles I think that you can look at him and see great benefit.”
Mata-Vasquez says she appreciates the support from the UTRGV community because events would not be successful without their attendance.
The event is free and open to all UTRGV students, faculty and staff.
Visit VLink for more information and to RSVP to the event.
For Vaquero News, I’m Victor Ramirez.
