By Brianna Ciniglio
STAFF WRITER
Hofstra first-years Cailin and Hannah Loesch have been web correspondents for “Teen Kids News” – an Emmy award-winning news show for kids – since their video audition landed them the positions when they were 15-year-old high school freshmen.
The two started off covering topics such as Earth Day, but quickly moved into entertainment news, covering “America’s Got Talent” for two seasons. They went to Radio City Music Hall every week during the summer to get the exclusives of the show.
“Over time, we got to know the judges and contestants,” Cailin said. They loved being behind the scenes to feel the energy of the contestants during their wins and eliminations.
Hannah and Cailin stated that they’ve been considering journalism as a career from a very young age. “I’ve always been interested in writing,” Cailin said.
Hannah agreed, “That was always my passion,” she said.
That passion not only pushed them into joining “Teen Kids News,” but has also influenced them to write a book entitled “The Twin Connection,” which was published in their senior year of high school. The book answers all the questions they’ve ever received about being twins.
Although they hope to write a work of fiction in the future, for now they’re focusing on their careers in journalism. Being a host on the “Today Show” would be a dream job for both. They love acting as anchor and co-anchor, which the two do in their online show, “Double Talk.” In their videos, they conduct interviews, cover news stories, and review books and movies. They most recently reviewed the films “Joy” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
“Now that we’re in college, we’ve started branching off and doing our own thing,” Cailin said about beginning “Double Talk.”
Still, the two love working together. “We make a good team,” Hannah said.
“[We] always have someone to discuss ideas with and feelings,” added Cailin.
Hannah and Cailin even room together in Rensselaer house, the communications cluster building in the Netherlands. “Being surrounded by journalism majors has inspired me,” said Hannah. “All of our friends have blogs and they’re constantly updating them and it inspires you to keep going.”
And that’s exactly what they plan to do. Both of them currently do traffic and weather updates for “The Morning Show” on WRHU, but hope to get even more involved while they’re at Hofstra. Hannah hopes to get involved with WRHU’s “Newsline,” as well as with The Chronicle, while Cailin said that, on top of what her sister listed, she’s also interested in pursuing other activities outside of Hofstra, such as conducting more interviews and doing more with “Teen Kids News.”
The twins have loved learning the technical part of journalism through their classes and extracurricular activities at Hofstra, but feel that there is also a lot to learn out in the field.
“I think there’s a lot of things that you can go to college and go to school to learn,” said Hannah. “But I think the real world experience we’ve gotten [has been my favorite part].”
