Alumni Highlight - Samantha Hildebrandt
Samantha Hildebrandt embarked on her educational journey by earning an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts from Ocean County College in 2019. She then pursued nursing school and proudly became a Practical Nurse, successfully passing the NCLEX-PN in 2020. In 2022, she made the decision to follow her dreams of becoming a news reporter and enrolled at Ƶ.
During her time at Ƶ, Samantha completed two internships with The Press of Atlantic City. One of her most memorable experiences was meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger and attending a walkthrough he did at The Sara & Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center. Additionally, she had the opportunity to cover one of Atlantic City’s fashion shows during Fashion Week 2023.
In May 2024, Samantha graduated magna cum laude from Ƶ and shortly thereafter accepted a position as a news assistant at Fox 5 New York.
“Ƶ provided me with the foundation to achieve all of my goals. It was up to me to make connections and use my resources to my advantage. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of LinkedIn; it played a crucial role in landing my job at Fox 5. By leveraging my networking skills, I connected with a Ƶ alum who works at Fox 5, and the rest is history. At The Press of Atlantic City, I was fortunate to work with Buzz Keough, the executive editor, who believed in me. He listened to my ideas and encouraged me to pursue my broadcast news dreams. Although The Press is primarily a print newspaper, I had the opportunity to do some on-camera interviews and even conduct a weather report during my time there that were digitally published. Everything I worked on at the press made my LinkedIn profile stand out. It’s up to you to market yourself and I can’t stress that enough.”
