Her Story
About Catherine
Catherine Welch serves as a producer and on-air personality at Connoisseur Media in Alford, Connecticut, the radio station serving Fairfield County. In this role, she produces and delivers local news reports, manages opinionated shows, writes her own news content, and conducts interviews. Welch graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a degree in English Creative Writing and is pursuing a master's degree in communications at Fairfield University. During her time at Franklin and Marshall, she served as senior class president, president of her sorority Kappa Delta, and head tour guide. She received the Corey Stangle Scholarship and a merit scholarship from Kappa Delta. Welch attributes her success to her former boss Melissa Shekhitov, who provided an internship opportunity at the radio station, and to the support from Franklin and Marshall. She values honesty, integrity, and compassion in both her professional and personal life and advises aspiring journalists not to become discouraged when facing setbacks, as career paths often involve unexpected turns. Welch is passionate about gaining respect as a female journalist in a male-dominated field and hopes to transition to television news in the future while continuing her involvement with causes such as the Girl Scouts and Prevent Child Abuse America.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Catherine
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say my former boss, Melissa Shekhitov, who I did an internship for at the radio station. Franklin and Marshall helped me get my name out there with other internships and supported me when I was president of the class and the sorority.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
To not get discouraged. Your career is not as easy as just doing one step at a time; it's okay to take different side paths to get where you want to be. When one door closed (retail job layoff), another opened leading to the radio position.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Get whatever experience you can get in broadcasting but always work towards what you want to do. Do a little extra work beyond the requirements so you seem ready to others and convince yourself that you're ready to move up in your field. I want to move to TV eventually.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Gaining respect as a female journalist in a male-dominated field. There are people in government who don't respect female journalism voices, which is disheartening, but many journalists like Caitlin Collins are breaking the glass ceiling.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Honesty, integrity, and compassion. It's not a weakness to be honest if you can't do the work handed to you; asking for help is honorable. Try to have a good balance between standing up for what I believe in and being compassionate towards others.
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