Meghann Stamps
“I always knew from a young age – from a very, very young age – that I enjoyed talking, especially on camera. I just knew this is what I wanted to be.”
Major: Broadcast Media
Hometown: Hendersonville, Tennessee
Involvement: Anchor for APSU-TV, Intern with News 2
Meghann Stamps knew the first day on the job as a summer intern at WKRN News 2 she’d made the right decision.
“After my very first day, I was 100 percent sure,” she said. “It was the best summer of my life, actually. It took me from being pretty sure this is what I wanted to do to ‘This is exactly what I want the rest of my life to be.’”
Stamps – a junior on the APSU women’s golf team – started out at Austin Peay as a biology major.
“At the start of my sophomore year, I realized my heart wasn’t into it,” she said. “And I always knew from a young age – from a very, very young age – that I enjoyed talking, especially on camera. I just knew this is what I wanted to be.”
Check out this report from Stamps on the Anniversary of 9/11
After switching majors, Stamps took another bold step. She reached out to News 2’s Bob Mueller.
“I’d met him before (during a Christmas golf auction aired on a Nashville radio show),” she said. “We’d talked about the importance of internships, so I reached out and said, ‘Hey, do you remember me?’”
Stamp’s first assignment for News 2 during the eight-week internship was holding signs behind the camera during a Republican gubernatorial debate at Pope John Paul II High School. She ended up on TV.
“That was my claim to stardom, the very back side of me on TV.”
As an intern, she accompanied reporters and anchors on assignment.
“I’d go out with whatever reporter I could,” she said. “I’d watch them do their story, and at the end, I’d ask, ‘Can I shoot a stand-up?’”
Back at Austin Peay, she’s one of the anchors for APSU-TV News.
“Every single communications professor I’ve had has helped me since I’ve been back,” she said. “Karen Bullis, she’s my video instructor now, and already we’re going over stuff we did so much at the (News 2) studio, and I’m like, ‘Yes, this is crucial.’”
