Alumna enjoys storytelling, from Minnesota to the Olympics and beyond

When St. Cloud State University alumna Alicia Lewis first joined the KARE 11 news station in 2014, she was upfront about her professional goals: be a morning anchor and cover the Olympics.

Mission accomplished.

Lewis became a morning anchor in the early 2020s, and checked off her “journalism bucket list” item in 2026 when she went to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

“It was so much work, and every day was a grind, but it was so much fun. I got to cover the U.S. women winning a hockey gold medal and be there and talk to the families. I even cried with some of the parents. It reminded me so much of the why — why I enjoy being a journalist,” she said. “Not that I forgot, but it’s different when you're in the thick of it with the families and you get caught up in the emotion of being able to share those moments that are so special to people, and then sharing them with our viewers back home. It was probably my top experience of stories I've ever gotten to do, was covering the Olympic Games and seeing people reach their dreams. It was just so cool.”

While Lewis covered a number of different events and features while at the Olympics, the U.S. women’s hockey team especially resonated with her. She got to interview Minnesota native and Minnesota Frost forward Taylor Heise in the lead up to the gold medal game, and watched the game itself with Heise’s parents.

“Her mom and her dad were there, and you could see they were so nervous, but they were so excited. Getting to see them after they just watched their daughter get a gold medal around her neck — it was just such a cool experience to be part of that, especially in women's sports,” Lewis said. “It's going through this exponential growth of viewership and people finally appreciating the hard work that women do. Being a woman journalist myself in a male-dominated field and sports realm, I would say that's the top highlight for sure among the many.”

Lewis’s path to the Olympics started off at St. Cloud State. She first became interested in SCSU after her older brother had been a film studies major and recommended the University. A campus tour and seeing the UTVS studio is what cemented the decision.

“I went full in and went all in on UTVS. Once I was there, honestly, the hands-on experience that students get — learning about something from books is one thing, but when you actually get to hold the camera and you have a deadline to put together a story— it was real-life experience you get in the newsroom there that was so beneficial for me when I went to my real first job outside of college,” she said. “It definitely was the right choice.”

Lewis originally enrolled with the intention of pursuing meteorology. Once she realized how much math was involved in the subject, she pivoted.

“I switched to a broadcast major, and I'm so glad I did, because I love storytelling and I love being creative with being a multimedia journalist — shooting, writing, editing. Journalism looked like a fun job,” she said. “You get to do something different every day. You could cover the Olympics or you could go and interview community members. That's what drew me in and what I fell in love with, was storytelling, sharing people's stories and being creative with edits and all of that.”

In 2012 Lewis earned her bachelor’s in broadcast journalism with a minor in communication studies from SCSU. She landed a job right out of graduation with WICS-TV in Springfield, Illinois, starting as a morning reporter before moving into an anchor role. A few years into her career, she saw a job posting for KARE 11, the station she grew up watching. After “coming home” to work at the station, she started out as a traffic reporter before moving into morning reporter and anchor duties.

Lewis strives to find a balance in her work, between thorough reporting duties but also some of the lighter content she features through her position as a morning show anchor.

“Journalism is so important. I think people want the truth and stories to be told about their local politicians and local business leaders and want to keep people accountable. Being local, I want to focus on our communities and the people in our communities. I hope people feel that sense of community pride when they watch our show. My goal every morning when I wake up is I hope people learn something and have fun, because news can be so heavy and so dark. We all have these sad stories that we have to know about, and it’s important to share the sad and the bad,” she said. “But what I love so much about morning television, is that there's this hope that you're starting your day off with. I hope I leave people an impact of hope or that they feel positive about their community or smile or laugh with one of our silly jokes. Leaving people feeling hopeful and happy is my day-to-day goal in life.”

As she looks to the future in her career field, Lewis said artificial intelligence is a major component for burgeoning journalists to keep in mind.

“AI is growing exponentially, and misinformation or disinformation is just everywhere. It's so important for us journalists to help people recognize what's real and what's fake. We are trustworthy. We are your source for information. I hope we can keep that alive and also grow and evolve. Not all AI is bad, but it is the biggest threat or the biggest thing that I think we have to learn to work with, but also teach our viewers what's real and what's fake,” she said. “I think the future of journalism is so important and it's still going to be around, but it's going to be different-looking with people using AI for good things and also AI putting out misinformation and disinformation. It’s going to be an interesting path moving forward, but there's so many people who are passionate about journalism that I'm not concerned that the truth will ever get lost. There's so many people who care about the truth and importance of journalism.”

For journalism students and recent graduates, Lewis encouraged them to reach out to working journalists like herself and to keep persevering if they’re truly passionate about a career in journalism. It won’t always be easy, but it’ll be worth it.

“The power of journalism is more important now than ever. The industry is not going anywhere. It is evolving, it is growing, it's changing just like any industry is. I think when it gets tough and you’re questioning things, just keep pushing forward. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “There are so many times in my career that I was like, ‘I don't know if this is working, can I keep doing this? Is this for me anymore?’ But I'm happy that I was persistent even in doubt. I pushed through and I'm so glad I didn't give up when it got hard, because I got to go to the Olympics and I got to do amazing stories. There are still moments like that. Looking forward, I don't know what will come up, but I'm so happy that I pushed through and never gave up.”