By RYAN COTTEN:
Miguel Bedoy works as a weather anchor in the nation’s number one television market, but his journey to success began in Amarillo. Bedoy grew up in Mexico and moved to Amarillo to start chasing his dreams. “I didn’t have the chance to study in Mexico and I was looking for opportunities in life because I wanted to be somebody,” Bedoy said. “My idea when I arrived in the United States was to go to Amarillo College and learn English and go back to my country,” he said.
As he was developing his English skills, Bedoy began taking media-related classes, which led to an on-air job delivering the weather at the Telemundo station in Amarillo. One day a producer from a Denver TV station saw Bedoy presenting the weather on Telemundo Amarillo, which led to a job offer. From there he moved on to positions in Dallas and Houston. About a year ago, he landed a job in the New York City market at Telemundo 47.
Wilson Guzman, Telemundo 47 community affairs manager, said he has enjoyed watching Bedoy embrace the cutting-edge technology that comes with working in New York City. “I’ve seen Miguel at work and I think he loves the fact that he can play with all these different tools and technology. He is like a child playing in the toy room with the Dopplers and the radars… all the different weather tools,” Guzman said.
Bedoy’s success does not surprise his friends and former AC professors. “When Miguel was at AC, he was an ambitious student but also extremely humble,” Mike Haynes, retired student media adviser and instructor, said. “His English was not good at first, but his instructors worked with him on that. I think all of us who knew him at AC have been proud of each step he has made up the ladder in the media industry.”
Bedoy attributes much of this success to the friends and faculty who supported him at AC. Bedoy’s classmate, Maddisun Fowler, who now serves as student media adviser at AC, said she is immensely proud of her friend’s achievements. “Maddisun would help me translate things and she would spend hours practicing my language with me,” said Bedoy. “I also remember my teachers telling me I could do it. I remember my professor Jill Gibson who always told me that she was expecting me to be in Los Angeles or doing something better than that. That really motivated me to believe in myself.”
Reflecting back on his time in college, Bedoy said he is grateful for all of the opportunities he was given. “Amarillo College gave me the tools to continue growing and reach my goals. AC was the base of my education. It helped me understand the culture, the language, the preparation for my career. It was just a very important part of my life.”
In 2013, Bedoy became a U.S. citizen and he said he seeks to inspire other immigrants and AC students. “I want to tell current students that they need to follow their dreams and do whatever is possible. Being an immigrant, not being able to speak English and adjusting to a whole new life means that I made it.”
Bedoy described reaching the nation’s number one TV market as amazing and exciting, but also achievable. “When you set up a goal and you work hard and you believe in yourself, you can make it. When you have good people around you that help, like the way my teachers, friends and family helped me, you can reach that goal.”
Pick up a copy of the Spring 2017 Current on newsstands around campus or read the entire edition online at http://amarillocollege.info/volume-87-print-editions/
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