Our GMU Weatherman, Nick Stasiak, hasn’t always been a fan of being near major storms. As a kid, he was terrified of thunder, lightening, torrential rain and the chance of a tornado striking. Then in his own words, he used “fear as power,” began following local weather news and started reporting for the Shenandoah Valley area during high school. Now instead of hiding from dangerous weather, he goes storm chasing!
Read below to learn more about this ambitious and adventurous Mason Patriot. You can also follow Stasiak on Twitter @GMUweatherman and on Instagram @gmuweatherman.
Major: double major in Atmospheric Science and Geography
Year: 2016
Hometown: Winchester, VA
Relationship status: Taken (sorry, ladies!)
Involvement: GMU Weatherman, Vice President of Visits for Admissions and the Mason Ambassadors, founder of the Society of Professional Journalists [GMU chapter], LEAD [Leadership, Education and Development office] CPR and first aid instructor.
Hobbies: Mountain biking, running and reporting the weather
Raquel DeSouza: Why did you choose Mason?
Nick Stasiak: I chose Mason because of its close proximity to D.C. Also [for] the Atmospheric Science program; I was very interested in that. I think the main reason was being so close to D.C. and the opportunities that there were. And the people that I knew here were sure that some pretty good doors could be opened.
RD: When did you become the GMU Weatherman?
NS: When Hurricane Sandy, when it was called Superstorm Sandy, blew threw here and that was about when I got that name. Originally Connect2Mason reached out to me when I was freshman because I was posting stuff on Facebook just for fun, just because that’s what I was used to doing. From there I got a positions at Connect2Mason, got a position at Fourth Estate, moved on, but great experience there.
RD: Would you consider that to be your most memorable reporting experience as GMU Weatherman or is there another one?
NS: Yeah, that’s definitely the most memorable and this past snowstorm was actually pretty memorable too, just a lot of outreach with that. I get a lot of outreach in the snowstorms because everyone wants to know ‘Are you going to have school? Are we not going to have school?’
RD: Do you have a favorite weatherman that you like to watch?
NS: Yeah, Doug Hill, ABC7. He’s been in the game for a long time and I had the pleasure to work with him and Bob Ryan for some time in D.C., so that’s really neat.
RD: Did you have an internship?
NS: Yeah I’ve interned around and I’ve worked with ABC7…I’m pretty good friends with Brian va de Graaf [ABC7 Metereologist] who went here [GMU], Doug Hill and then Lauryn Ricketts who is with NBC4. She’s actually from my hometown and used to be a soccer coach at my high school, so she actually got me started when I was in high school.
RD: What’s your dream job?
NS: It’s either go into broadcast and work my way up to somewhere in D.C. or international meteorology. Or I’m going to go to grad school for remote sensing and satellite imagery. With that, I want to be able to monitor typhoons, hurricanes and stuff like that on a daily basis with some of NASA’s satellites.
RD: What would be your ideal date?
NS: Honestly, I would want to go explore somewhere. Just say ‘let’s go’ and I actually did that the other week. We went to D.C., we didn’t have a plan and just went with it and it turned out perfect. Studying geography, I’m so interested in learning how to get around and finding all those little hole-in-the-wall place to go eat and hang out.
Either/OR Game
· introvert or extrovert?: extrovert
· dinner and a movie or Netflix and chill?: Dinner and a movie
· Democrat or Republican?: Democrat (yes, he’s feelin’ the Bern)
· NBA or NFL?: NFL
· Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus: Taylor Swift
· wine or beer?: beer
· waffles or pancakes?: waffles
· chocolate or vanilla?: chocolate
· summer or winter?: winter
Photo Credit: Nick Stasiak