Meramec Alumnus enjoying continued success post-STLCC
BY: RYAN WINZEN
Staff Writer
“I always liked the evening news because it felt like I was watching something new. When I watched the evening news, I felt like I learned something about the world. It’s not just here in Missouri, it’s all over the country and the world,” said Rousseau.
Nicholas Rousseau is an alumni of St Louis Community College, who has gone on to have a successful career with the Higher Education Channel (HECTV), a local media organization based in St Louis.
Rousseau explained how his interest in the news began at an early age.
“I always watch the news, it’s funny because I always get called a news geek. My father started this habit because he was always watching it. I can name more newscasters from the 90’s than kids cartoon characters from that era.”
This interest in both the news and filmmaking gave Rousseau the drive to start learning about the basics of filmmaking.
“Since YouTube came out, I started playing with a camera. I did not take any filmmaking classes in highschool, but I knew the basics before going in.”
Rousseau started at St Louis Community College Meramec in the fall of 2009, taking classes such as filmmaking 101 and film appreciation. After graduating from Meramec in 2013, Rousseau transferred to the University of Missouri-St Louis, majoring in media studies.
After his time at UMSL, Rousseau began his career in the industry as an intern for STL TV. After that, he got a job at HECTV. His duties there include video producer, occasional cameraman, and interviewer.
“I interviewed people like animator Marlon West,” he said. “I interviewed filmmaker Ken Burns. I interviewed Elsa Garrison, who works for Getty images.”
Rousseau has mentioned some struggles that he has faced during interviews.
“I interviewed Adam Wainwright,” he said. “It was interesting. We didn’t talk about baseball, but we had to talk about his foundation. I wanted to ask him baseball questions, but I knew I had to stay on topic.”
Rousseau mentioned that his favorite part of being a producer is imagining the product, then seeing it finished through.
“I love seeing it come from my head to the video. Everything looks different in your head, but you change it and make it look better,” he said. “Sometimes you can play the video in your head when you close your eyes. It’s a great feeling seeing it come to live, that’s the magic happening.”
Due to all his constant hard work, Rousseau was awarded a Mid-America Emmy for his interview with Disney animator Marlon West.
Even with winning an award, Rousseau still plans to continue working just as hard as he did before, getting new stories from different people.
“Everybody has their story, even the person walking down the street.”
Rousseau ended with some advice for current STLCC students, as well as students everywhere.
“Continue doing your craft, it might be tough, it might be hard. Continue the grind. It doesn’t matter if you win or not, we are all winners in life by accomplishing our goals.”
