Rosalia Fodera recently met celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, who shared with her the special menu for The Governors Ball. Within the same few days, Rosalia also interviewed the writer behind Inside Out, and two Oscar-nominated sound editors.
However, Rosalia didn’t simply meet these celebrities on a whim. She has been dreaming of the chance to be a part of the WEBN-Boston Oscars Special since high school. When she arrived at Emerson College as a journalism major with a minor in photography, she began learning how to be an on-air reporter. Rosalia heard about WEBN through a few fellow sisters of her sorority, Alpha Epsilon Phi, which she is also the current president of. She made it her goal to not only get involved with the news outlet, but to get the chance to fly to L.A. one year to film the special dedicated to the Oscars. She says, “I started working with WEBN and did everything I could to make myself known so I would be able to cover the Oscars for them. Fast-forward two years and that’s exactly what I made happen.”
With regards to the time leading up to the trip, Rosalia says, “As soon as the Oscar nominations came out in January, the team began e-mailing everyone we could. We reached out to nominees in every category for interviews.” Luckily, they were able to secure many interviews with Oscar nominated, and now Oscar winning editors and writers. During her trip to Los Angeles, Rose was working nonstop with an “amazing” team. They certainly “had fun being with each other,” she says, even though they were there for work, not play.
Getting to hear about and see behind-the-scenes secrets of the movies we all love was a highlight of the trip. Rosalia says, “I now understand how much goes into making the sound of a footstep in snow or water moving.” One of her favorite interviews was with Meg Lefauve, who wrote Inside Out. Rose says, “It was interesting to interview a creative mind behind such a great film.”
The Oscars special is now being edited and will be airing on local stations and on YouTube in the next few weeks. When asked her final thoughts about finally living out her dream, Rosalia says, “This experience further proved to me that I am ready to go even further in my journalism career. I realized just how much I love doing what I do.” It’s important to do what you love, and fortunately for this aspiring journalist, she has already begun.