Ilse Lujan Hayes: Tonight's Top Story

It would have been easy for Ilse Lujan Hayes (Class of ’02, B.A. Communications) to get discouraged after graduating from CSUDH. Married and with a three-year-old daughter, the 29-year-old had aspirations of breaking into the ultra-competitive world of broadcast journalism. However, she had no direct experience and only had to look as far as the nightly news to see that most entry-level reporters were at least five years her junior. Now, four years later, she can see that her added dose of life experience not only helped her land her first broadcast job, but it also has served in her rise through the television ranks.

“When I graduated, I felt like it was do or die – get a job or find another dream. So I don’t think it was really ambition, I just knew the alternative to not finding a job was tragic." Hayes is now the only Hispanic reporter and producer for WJRT-TV ABC 12 in Flint, Michigan, the 65th largest market of the 212 in the country. In her field where reporters jump from job to job, always looking to move into larger markets, Hayes has been able to work her way up within WJRT, an almost unheard-of achievement that she has viewed as critical for her family’s stability. In November 2004, she signed a two-year contract as an on-air reporter Wednesday through Friday. Her contract includes her position as a producer for the weekend evening news, developing stories and programs which are viewed by 1.2 million people. Yet her days at WJRT did not start as glamorously.

After graduation, Hayes began cold-calling news directors in Michigan markets, where her husband’s family lived, while still in Southern California. “Every one of them laughed at me except one, and he’s now my boss,” she says of WJRT News Director Jim Bleicher. “He told me to give him a call when I got into the area, but he didn’t understand the only reason I’d move was if there was a job available.”

With that single thread of hope to cling to, Hayes and her family uprooted and moved to Michigan. She rang Bleicher repeatedly, but he wouldn’t return her calls. Undaunted, she drove to the station without an appointment and asked to see him.

“I normally don’t see people without appointments. I don’t even take their phone calls. But Ilse was very direct and very business like. She had an obvious passion and aspiration to be on the air,” says Bleicher. 

It was the first time her life experience paid dividends. “I think being a wife and a mother, it made me feel like I had a right to a job. Of course I was nervous, but I went in with the feeling I deserved something whereas I know my younger self would have walked in there and said, ‘Well, if you hire me, that would be great.’”

Bleicher offered Hayes a three-month unpaid internship, which Hayes jumped at. She then began three years of paying dues – first as the intern, then as a part-time news assistant working the graveyard shift. She then moved on to becoming part-time weekend assignment editor, and finally, she was offered her full-time contract.

Like many, Hayes discovered her passion and calling while in college in a roundabout way, but it was one in which she was always proactive. She served as CSUDH’s chapter president of the Public Relations Student Society of America and volunteered for public relations internships. But instead of leading her into a career in PR, both experiences ended in a lack of enthusiasm about the profession. She found that her true calling lay on the other side, in broadcast journalism. She says that such groups and internships were also key for networking, which was critical for her to confirm that the broadcast profession was in fact right for her.

That ability to network and listen to people may be her strongest skill as a reporter as well. “Whereas some reporters report stories from the top down – from officials and leaders first - Ilse tends to do it bottom up. She likes to dig in, get in there with the people the stories affect,” says Bleicher. “She’s a great listener and people sense her sincerity, so they open up to her.”

“I think I’ve been able to understand the hook of a story better because I can relate to people,” she says, suggesting again how she benefits from her life experiences. “I have two daughters so I understand how stories affect children, and I have a husband, so I recognize how they affect families too.” (Hayes became pregnant with her second child just four months after signing the full-time contract and returned from maternity leave this February.)
 
As a people person, she accordingly prefers profiles and inspirational stories versus breaking news, like fires or severe weather where young reporters typically cut their teeth. It’s a reflection of what is most important for Hayes; her family. In the highly competitive field where careers are made and lost by being able to ditch everything for a good scoop, she has found a delicate balance between career and family few have mastered. Hayes says she’s indebted to the support and love of her husband, Paul, who steps in to divide the household chores. And the time she cherishes most are those indefinable moments simply spent in the company of her daughters, 4-month-old Adelina and 7-year-old Angela.

Of course, such a busy mom is always multi-tasking so those moments may occur while she sweats on the treadmill in her bedroom while Angela watches American Idol from her bed. Or they may come later, when Angela cuddles next to her side while Hayes pores over newspapers and weekly news magazines each night to keep abreast of current events. Yet no matter how many hours of work she puts in at home or how strongly she has fought to get where she is, in the end, it’s looking down at her sleeping daughter, not that red light next to the camera that makes her most proud.

“I hope I’m showing my daughters how to follow their dreams, not just telling them. Hopefully, through my example, I can show them that even when you’re scared, you’ve got to try. You’ve got to go for it,” she says.