Students Inspired After John Quinones’ Presentation

Story posted January 26, 2022 in CommRadio, News by Gabrielle Teiner

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College held the 27th annual Mark Luchinsky memorial lecture with ABC news correspondent John Quinones.

The event took place Monday night at the State College theater in downtown State College, with quite a large audience.

In his speech, Quinones talked about using his platform for good and shared stories of his experiences doing his hit show “What Would You Do?”

One of his many fans, third-year student Madison Borkovich, said Quinones’ presentation was even better than she thought it would be.

“I really enjoyed it, it was a lot more than I expected. I knew that he was going to share a lot of insight with everyone, but it exceeded all expectations of everyone that went,” Borkovich said.

What stood out to Borkovich most was how Quinones utilized his platform to do good for others. She described his story about almost 300 children living in sewers in a Latin American country, in which the government was trying to light the sewers on fire to get the kids to stop living there. Quinones was able to use his platform to do good and raise money to help the children.

“American viewers after it streamed nationwide donated a million dollars and this good citizen was able to build an orphanage and save all the children,” Borkovich said. “He really showed journalism as an outlet to progress and save other people and make the world a better place.”

Maddie Fisher, a second-year student, who also attended John Quinones’ event thinks having guest speakers come to speak to Penn State students is a valuable experience.

“It’s something I’m looking forward to having more at Penn State. I think it is important that Penn State focuses on bringing more guest speakers to our school,” Fisher said.

Regardless of his career path, Fisher says his message can reach students of all intended majors.

“He was focused in journalism and that was his career path, but the messages he taught really transpired to any career and I think that it's important to find role models that all students can look up to,” Fisher said.

John Quinones is a seven time Emmy award winning journalist for his "Primetime Live," "Burning Questions" and "20/20" work.

 

Gabrielle Teiner is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email gmt5216@psu.edu.

About the Contributors

Gabrielle Teiner's photo

Gabrielle Teiner

Senior / Broadcast Journalism Major

Gabrielle Teiner is a fourth-year student from Long Island, New York, majoring in broadcast journalism at Penn State. She is a member of the CommRadio news department and can be heard on the air every Wednesday. She also serves as the Entertainment anchor for Penn State Network News every Monday. She also anchors segments on the Nittany Lion Red Carpet News show. This past summer she was a writing intern for uInterview, writing over 140 stories during her time there. She is currently a member of Centre County Report. If you’d like to contact her, email her at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).