Vikki Vargas

Renowned TV Journalist Gives to Future Newscasters

When a 19-year-old kid says she wants to be on TV, the usual response might be to say, “Yeah, sure.” But when Vikki Vargas ’82 (B.A. communications) said that, her professors took her seriously and gave her the tools she needed to succeed as a broadcast journalist.

That’s why Vargas, today the Emmy-nominated Orange County Bureau Chief for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, is joining with her channel to endow a $25,000 scholarship in the College of Communications for future broadcast journalists.

“I’ve always said this is where everything began for me,” says Vargas, “I had professors who were both encouraging and challenging. They helped me get where I am, and you don’t forget that.”

This isn’t the first time Vargas and her husband, Michael Nason, have given to Cal State Fullerton. They are regular donors to the Guardian Scholars program – she is a member of the Guardian Scholars Advisory Board – and they have funded individual scholarships as well. That work fits in well with her work for Orangewood Children’s Foundation, where she is a member of the executive board.

But this scholarship is different, Vargas said, because it will benefit students who were just like her. “I think broadcast journalism is in my blood,” she says. “No matter where broadcast news goes in the future, I’ll always be indebted to Cal State Fullerton for giving me my start in television.

“I’ve never wavered from my dream of being in television journalism, and I hope that there are students as excited as I am.”