Northwestern College Announces Anita Padilla, FOX 32 Chicago Reporter, to be 2013 Commencement Speaker

[Rosemont, IL] Northwestern College President Lawrence Schumacher announced today that the 2013 Commencement Speaker for Northwestern College’s June 28 Ceremony will be Emmy Award winning reporter Anita Padilla of WFLD FOX 32 Chicago. Anita is a reporter and local media talent who was born and raised in Waukegan, Illinois. While her 24 year career may have taken her to New York, Florida and the Quad-Cities of Illinois and Iowa, for 16 years she has been covering Chicago news. This will be the first commencement address of Anita’s career. Northwestern College Commencement Ceremony will take place this year on Friday, June 28 at The Arie Crown Theater in Chicago at McCormick Place, located at 2301 South Lake Shore Drive. The Ceremony will begin at 5:00 p.m. and include approximately 300 graduates. In the past, commencement ceremonies have yielded nearly 5,000 attendees in support of the graduation class. Anita, an experienced television news anchor and reporter, has focused her career beyond just reporting the facts, but instead on telling stories that impact the lives of Chicagoans every day. In 2007 she came to FOX 32 News joining their morning team at Good Day Chicago, which airs daily from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. Her Chicago-based roots allow her to delve into what she knows Chicagoans care about - beyond the basic facts of a news story. Anita grew up in Waukegan and graduated from Waukegan East High School. Following the breakup of her parents, Anita moved to Wisconsin with her mother and went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for two years. But after the death of her mother, Anita left college and returned to Illinois, holding down two jobs, including a $6 an hour job as a cashier at a car dealership and another job with the Lake County Clerk’s Office. It was while working at the car dealership that Anita had her first exposure to media when she was invited to cut a radio commercial on behalf of the dealership. That sparked her interest, and shortly thereafter she enrolled in the Broadcast Journalism Program at Columbia College in Chicago. She took classes when she could while simultaneously holding down jobs in order to pay her bills. Consequently, it took her four years to complete the last two years of her degree, with her diploma coming from Columbia College. Anita began her journalism career in radio at WXLC/WKRS in Waukegan as an anchor and at Shadow Traffic where she was a traffic editor. She was also a full-time intern for broadcaster Bill Kurtis at WBBM TV, Channel 2 before she headed to the Quad-Cities of Illinois and Iowa where she served as a general assignment reporter at WHBF-TV. Anita then headed to Orlando, Florida where she ran a news bureau and was a reporter. Finally, before coming back home to Chicago, Anita worked as a reporter in New York for WNYW-TV/FOX 5. Upon her return to the Chicago market, Anita worked at WMAQ Channel 5 as an anchor and reporter for 10 years before returning to the FOX Network at WFLD 32 as a general assignment reporter, and then most recently as a part of their FOX Good Day Chicago Morning News Team. The two most riveting assignments of Anita’s career have been her extensive coverage of the Drew Peterson murder trial out of Bolingbrook as well as the widespread coverage of the federal trial of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, including coverage of the day he left for prison. Among her many achievements she counts her exclusive interviews with Cicero Mayor Betty Loren-Maltese on the day of her racketeering conviction and again when she was sentenced to 8 years in federal prison. Another achievement was her coverage of the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in Long Island, New York where she was the first reporter to interview Gov. George Pataki live from the scene as he got out of a helicopter. Anita has won two Emmy Awards during her career. Her first came in 1995 while she was in Florida and was awarded for her Breaking News Coverage of an armed robbery and carjacking in Orlando by a murderer, with Anita being the first reporter to go on air with the story. Five years later she earned another Emmy in 2000 for her role in a New Year’s Eve Millenium celebration while at WMAQ Channel 5 in Chicago. This year Northwestern College is celebrating its 110th Anniversary as a Chicagoland institution of higher learning, having been established in 1902. The College was purchased by the Schumacher Family in 1958 and has grown from one campus in Chicago serving a handful of students in accounting and stenography, to three campuses (Bridgeview, Chicago-Jefferson Park, and Naperville) serving nearly 1,500 students and maintaining several dozen areas of study. “Anita Padilla will bring a flair of excitement as our 2013 commencement speaker,” commented President Schumacher. “She’s a local success story having grown up in the Chicago suburbs, and we have no doubt that she will inspire our graduates as they celebrate their own personal accomplishments.” You can follow Anita Padilla on Twitter at @anitapadilla32. About Northwestern College: Northwestern College (NC) is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, http://www.ncahlc.org. The college offers focused career-oriented associate degree and certificate programs with flexible schedules and a supportive faculty. Day, evening, weekend, online classes and online programs are available. More information can be found at www.northwesterncollege.edu or by calling toll-free (888) 205-2283.