KENNEDY DERAEDT

There is nowhere I would rather be than behind a lens.

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Hello, I'm Kennedy and right now, I am enjoying my first professional career as a TV video journalist. I worked my way up from a part-time position to a full-time position out of the Cedar Rapids bureau. 

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Two days after the derecho on Aug. 10, 2020, I covered the Cedar Rapids area primarily on my own for seven months. My station won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for our continuing coverage of the storm. 

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(A derecho is essentially a land hurricane, we had 140 mph winds and lost 75% of the tree canopy)

 

At Iowa State University, I was a visuals editor and photojournalist at the Iowa State Daily. I won a CSPA Gold Circle award in the spot news photograph category. Here is the photo I made as Kim Reynolds was elected as the first female governor in the state.

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My favorite memory from college was studying abroad in Urbino, Italy. There my professor told me I don't belong behind a desk. From that moment forward I worked towards my dream of becoming a photojournalist.

 

I think 2020 taught us all the value of human connection and I have loved nothing more than being able to tell the stories of the amazing people in Eastern Iowa.

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You can see what I have been up to lately on my Instagram.

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