Members of the Glen Oaks High School student Journalism Club got a rare glimpse into the national and international world of news coverage with a visit by CBS news correspondent Randall Pinkston on March 25.  Pinkston, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, spoke to students about the media, getting a good education and the importance of maintaining a positive image in today’s age of technology.

Greeting Pinkston (second from right) to the school were (left to right):  Kerrinesha Adams, president of the school’s student Journalism Club, Spanish teacher Joshua Howard and Principal Wilbert August.  During his visit, Pinkston talked to more than 600 students at Glen Oaks High School about "keeping the faith" and "staying the course." Pinkston encouraged students telling stories of his challenging childhood and about his more current experiences as a news journalist. 

Brought to Baton Rouge by the Glen Oaks High School Journalism Club and the Association of Black Communicators at Louisiana State University (LSU), Pinkston charged each student to live their dream and not let any opposing circumstance determine their destiny. Later, he held roundtable discussions at LSU and spoke to individual classes at Glen Oaks High School. 

Pinkston is based in New York City and currently reports for the CBS Evening News and other CBS News broadcasts. He has reported on the reconstruction in Iraq post-Saddam Hussein and the Uni-bomber story, and he broke the story of the infamous Susan Smith trial in 1995, among many other stories. In 1996, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for the documentary “CBS REPORTS: Legacy of Shame.” Pinkston also won Emmy Awards for his coverage of the terrorism of TWA Flight 800 in 1997 and Princess Diana’s death in 1998.