"...And He Was A Hit!"

Anderson Cooper at Poly Prep Wows Students, Faculty Alike
by Phoebe Neidl (phoebe@brooklyneagle.net), published online 02-09-2009

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CNN Anchor Has Covered Wars, Rebellions, Hurricanes

By Tom Kane
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BAY RIDGE -- Friday, Feb. 6, will go down as a very special day for a lot of Poly Prep students and faculty members. The guest speaker at their traditional Friday morning chapel/assembly was none other than CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and he was a hit!

The program started with William (Bud) Cox, the Upper School head, introducing Poly senior John Plotz, who played a moving Chopin piece to begin the proceedings. That was followed by John Rearick’s introduction of Cooper. Rearick, the director of writing at Poly, taught a young Anderson Cooper 25 years ago in one of his writing classes.

Part of Rearick’s introduction was the reading of a snippet from Cooper’s memoir, Dispatches from the Edge. It was a poignant piece, and told the story of a 4-year-old Cooper walking into his father’s study, crawling onto his lap and falling asleep to the beat of his dad’s heartbeat and the sound of his typewriter clicking away.

Cooper is the son of author Wyatt Emory Cooper, who died in 1978, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt. He graduated from the Dalton School in 1985 and Yale University in 1989. Today, he is a successful journalist, author and television personality, with his Anderson Cooper 360 a top-rated program.

He began his discussion by telling the crowd he was one of the few anchors who doesn’t like to hear himself talk very much, but immediately had the entire group listening intently. He spoke of his early years in the business, when ABC was not interested in Cooper even answering phones. “This shows you the value of a Yale education,” he jokingly told his audience.

‘Follow Your Bliss’

Gloria Vanderbilt’s advice to her young son after graduating from Yale was to “follow your bliss.” His bliss was in the streets of places like Burma, Zaire and New Orleans, covering student rebellions, wars and hurricanes.

He spoke of his commitment to the Congo, of his experience and his “real education on the streets of Mogadishu,” and of his eyewitness realization of what people are capable of doing, both good and evil. Asked by student Harrison Nesbit about his trip to Africa, Cooper answered, “It was a place I always wanted to go. I was always interested in places on the map that were kind of unexplored. I wanted to see these places and learn things about myself, as well as about the people in them.”

He answered questions about CNN, politics, swimming with sharks (he was told by his instructor to “project confidence” during his swim) and writing in general. He spoke about being shot at for the first time, and told students considering a career as a news anchor to “try to resist becoming a blowhard.”

After the one-hour assembly, close to 600 students and faculty exited the chapel, while Cooper spoke with a handful of students. He then moved to another room to meet with editors and reporters from Poly’s award-winning newspaper, The Polygon.

“It’s always exciting to talk with young people and find out what they’re interested in, and as I said, I don’t like to hear myself talk so much and was glad we were able to have a conversation.” said Cooper.

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