Andrea Miller

School: Klein College of Media and Communication
Degree: BA, media studies and production, 2017, Minor in environmental studies (CLA)
Hometown: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Andrea Miller, KLN ’17, started her journey at Temple unsure of her major. For the first three years, she didn’t participate in any extracurricular activities, and she wasn’t sure of her career path. By her senior year, she could no longer ignore her inner storyteller, put the pieces of her career together, and ultimately decided to chase her journalistic dream. These days, you can find her solving puzzles of a different kind at CNBC, where she produces mini documentaries for the digital video team, particularly her Weird Economy series.

“Just feeling as though I’ve had this calling to be a storyteller and a writer, and having that creative force in me and allowing that guide where I go next are what drive me.”

Click the audio above to hear what she has to say.

Photo by Ryan S. Brandenberg

Hidden figures

A lifelong writer, Miller didn’t want to put pressure on her creativity to make a career, but during her senior year at Temple, she started to see the bigger picture of her future. Miller found inspiration in the classes of Associate Professor Sherri Hope Culver and Professor Emeritus Howard Rice, who both inspired her to pursue a career in media. Rice always encouraged Miller not to shy away from her creative writing skills.

“I took every course they taught,” Miller said. She worked in Culver’s office for the Center for Media and Information Literacy and was an assistant producer for Media Inside Out. During the same year, she worked as an assistant producer on Temple Update, a 30-minute weekly news show for Temple students. All of her Temple experiences led her to realize that her love of storytelling could be the foundation of her career after all.

Stranger things

Miller still remembers spotting an ad for the Dow Jones News Fund fellowship during her senior year. On a whim, she decided to apply to the fellowship. After a long application process, she ended up being selected as a participant in the program during the summer after her graduation. She couldn’t believe that she had been chosen despite her lack of financial knowledge and reporting experience. Miller spent the summer at the Advertising Specialty Institute as its DJNF fellow while still working her other job as a crew member at the Chipotle on Temple’s campus.

After her fellowship ended, Miller made the move to New York City as an intern at ABC News Digital, reporting for ABCNews.com and assisting the documentary unit. Eight months after working as an intern, Miller found herself as part of the team launching ABC News Live, a 24/7 streaming channel.

However, this role couldn’t satisfy her newfound curiosity and passion for business journalism. So, Miller set her sights on CNBC. After multiple job applications, Miller was hired as an associate producer on CNBC’s digital video team, where she started producing short news-of-the-day videos and cutting content from CNBC TV broadcasts for an online audience.

Andrea Miller poses for a photo outside.

“The skills that I learned through the media studies program allowed me to be able to work in video, audio production and beyond. Now, I know how to bring a full story to life.”

–Andrea Miller
Producer

Freaky forces

At CNBC, Miller started producing explainer videos for YouTube, reporting on the curious intricacies of the U.S. economy. By the time Miller worked her way up to producer, she started her own Weird Economy series on the video team. The series aims to uncover the hidden forces that shape the economy, making nuanced and complex topics accessible to an audience in a 10–15-minute video. Miller says she’s a “jack-of-all-trades”—using a mix of skills that she didn’t think she’d eventually tie together: creative writing and technical production. She becomes a “quick expert” on various subjects ranging from the looming rubber shortage to deciphering the impact of Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions.

“The skills that I learned through the media studies program allowed me to be able to work in video, audio production and beyond,” she said, noting that at the time, she didn’t see how her coursework would become applicable. But all the pieces fell into place. “Now, I know how to bring a full story to life.”

“I’m proud of reaching this point and putting all the puzzle pieces together,” she said.