May 6, 2009
SAN DIEGO – More than 1,200 students will celebrate graduation during National University’s annual southern California commencement ceremony on Sunday, June 7, 2009 beginning at 2 p.m. at the San Diego Convention Center. Television reporter and personality Lisa Ling will serve as the keynote speaker for the ceremony, which will include graduates from National University’s southern California campuses, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, Camarillo, Carlsbad, Costa Mesa, Ontario, and San Bernardino.
Ling has been working in television for 20 years. Most recently she has been seen as a special correspondent on CNN and the Oprah Winfrey Show. The pivotal point in her career came when she landed a co-host position on ABC’s popular daytime talk show program, “The View,” where she appeared from 1999 to 2002. On “The View,” Ling brought her modern “twenty-something” philosophies and perspectives to millions of Americans alongside co-hosts Barbara Walters, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, and Joy Behar.
A California native, Ling began her journalistic endeavors at age 16 as a co-host spot on “Scratch,” a syndicated teen magazine show based out of Sacramento. At 18, she began reporting for Channel One News, a program for teens, broadcast via satellite to schools across the United States.
At Channel One, Ling conducted ground reporting from more than two dozen countries, including segments on cocaine processing labs in the Colombian jungle, the civil war in Algeria, the refugee crisis in Albania, and tea with the Dalai Lama. She was the first American television reporter to ever interview the owner of a Russian company accused of smuggling nuclear weapons. Before the age of 25, she became the program’s senior war correspondent. In 2001, Ling hosted “The Day It All Changed,” a 9/11 forum for teens on the WB Network.
For more information about National University’s commencement ceremony, visit www.nu.edu/OurPrograms/Graduation/Commencement.html.
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