“Fridays are awesome!” is one of the many catchphrases used by popular CNN10 news anchor Carl Azuz. However, Azuz managed to make a recent Thursday pretty awesome for some Journalism 1 students of journalism instructor Jack Stenger. In what’s become nearly an annual tradition, Azuz visited North Atlanta students in March to offer them insights on a the opportunities and challenges of a life in broadcast journalism. His March 15 visit was marked by high enthusiasm for the Journalism 1 and Journalism 2 students who packed out Room 5161, the site of his visit.

There had been a great deal of hype and anticipation for his arrival, and journalism students prepared for a long time to festoon their classroom and school hallways with signs and flyers to mark the arrival of the popular broadcaster. Students around the building noticed colorful flyers that said “Welcome Carl!” and Carl is here!”

Prior to the anchor’s arrival, students in Room 5161 eagerly awaited his arrival. A chant broke out. “Carl! Carl! Carl! Carl! Carl! Carl!” Finally, Azuz, walked into the room to screams of excitement and joy. A news anchor who is seen many days on the screen of an in-class Promethean board screen was now only a few feet away from students in their very own classroom.

Azuz’s popular news show, CNN 10, is viewed by millions of students every day. The show, formerly known as CNN Student News, manages to fit all of the news that students need to know into just 10 short minutes. Azuz always rounds the show out with some puns and these witty saying endear him to the kids even more. “If they are good puns then one of the writers wrote it. If it’s a bad pun I probably wrote it,” he said.

Azuz attended the University of Georgia, and he first decided to pursue a career in journalism there after first wanting to major in business.“When I was in college, I went to lunch with my mom and a friend of hers,” he said. “The friend was a field producer for CNN. She got to travel the world and shoot video of really important things. It was at that time that I thought to myself: ‘Wow: Can you imagine getting paid to do that?’”

After graduating from Georgia with a degree in telecommunications arts, Azuz started at the Atlanta-based news network CNN. He started off pretty low on the totem pole as a video journalist, but his talent and charisma helped him work his way up. “Being a video journalist was everything from writing the scripts to getting the coffee,” he said.

Initially, he started as a writer but soon realized his passion was being in front of the camera. “I’ve always liked to talk”, Azuz said. “I mean, I got detention in high school for talking in class. Can you imagine how ideal my current job is? Now I get paid to talk!”

Azuz works eight hours a day, but insists that the job is by no means overwhelming. “I enjoy writing because writing is mostly what I do and I’m good at it,” he said. “So I wouldn’t call that kind of job ‘overwhelming.”

Very few people are lucky enough to do what they love for a living, while gaining the admiration of millions. Mark down Azuz as one of the lucky ones. He’s a natural-born communicator who gets to bring the news to millions of people every day. But also mark down some North Atlanta journalism students as the lucky ones. For this cohort of future journalists, it’s become a nearly annual tradition to have a friend in the in-class presence of Carl Azuz.