Hope Osemwenkhae ’18 For Hope Osemwenkhae ’18, the forecast is mostly sunny with winds that look primed to carry her all the way to her dream job. The former Earth and Environmental Sciences major, and Television and Radio minor, landed a position last summer as a meteorologist for News 12 The Bronx. After interning with Emmy Award–winning WNBC meteorologist Raphael Miranda ’06—a connection facilitated by the college’s Magner Career Center—Osemwenkhae leveraged her relationships there to land her current position. “This is such a big opportunity to start my career in the top market,” says Osemwenkhae, who thought she’d have to move to a much smaller market to get her foot in the door. “I’m in more than 700,000 households. To start in my hometown at such a young age is huge.” Osemwenkhae learned the ins and outs of weather forecasting during her internship, so when she was put to the test during her interview with News 12, she nailed it. She explains, “That day, we had some easterly winds and they wanted to know what that means. The sea breeze is cooler around the coast than in urban areas because of that wind, which has a significant impact on how it’s going to feel outside. The interviewer asked, ‘Why is it cooler along the coast?’ I responded, ‘The easterly winds are due to a sea breeze making it cooler along the coast compared to inland.’ ” Osemwenkhae—who decided she wanted to be a weather forecaster after watching the movie The Day After Tomorrow when she was eight years old, and growing up watching Sam Champion and Lee Goldberg on WABC7—is currently enrolled in a 12-credit online certificate program in weather forecasting at Pennsylvania State University. She plans to complete it by December 2020. She says she’s happy for the opportunity to be at News 12, which has outlets all over the tristate area, because she can fill in as needed in other markets like Long Island and Connecticut. “That means more flexibility and more eyes I can be seen by.”
