Stacy Lange is a reporter with WNEP-TV. Lange, 27, is a native of South Abington Township and is a graduate of Abington Heights High School. She is also a graduate of Syracuse University, where she earned a degree in broadcast journalism. She lives in Dunmore.

What first made you want to work as a television news reporter? I’ve always wanted to work in television, and I’ve always wanted to work in journalism. I love telling stories. When I was a little kid, I had a computer game, where you could write and illustrate on a computer your own fictional stories. I was obsessed with it. From age 11, through college, I did a program called Odyssey of The Mind. It’s a creative problem-solving competition, and there are different facets to it. You work as a team of five to seven kids, and you come up with a skit that solves a problem. And it was around high school that I started getting interested in video. I’d take around a video camera and shoot different things with my friends.

So, by the time you got to college, you knew? I really love long-form journalism and things like “60 Minutes,” and that’s what I went to Syracuse expecting I would do. When I got there, you took this big introductory communication class, and the instructor, who was the dean at the school, said to me that I should try local news. He said, “You have the look, the sound and the feel of a news reporter.” I started doing it for the TV station at Syracuse and fell in love with it.

What do you enjoy about it? There’s so much. I love that I never know what they day is going to hold. I could walk into the office and I could have a game plan for what my day is going to be like, and it could be completely different by the time the day ends. I learn something new every day. I meet new people every day. I spend about 90 percent of my day outside, which I love, and I get to write, which is really at the core. I like to write stories, and I do that every day. Not every 27-year-old reads two newspapers every day and watches the news every day, but that’s just who I am. And I like that at the end of the day, I have something that I can look at, that went on TV, and that I’m proud of.

What do you do in your free time? I really appreciate working and living in my hometown. I love being able to spend time with my family. My parents and my brothers are here, and I have a very close network of friends that I’ve known my whole life. I like music. And I’m kind of a pop culture junkie, so I watch a lot of movies and TV.

Who are some of your favorite musical artists? I’m really all over the board. I’m kind of going through a Country and Western phase right now, which I never expected. I like singer/songwriter types like Kasey Musgraves, Sara Bareilles and Grace Potter. And I am not so guilty about my guilty pleasure, which is late ‘90s and early 2000s pop.

Any hobbies? I collect Harry Potter-themed things.

Follow sports? Philadelphia all the way. I love baseball. I can watch the Phillies 162 games a year. I’m an Eagles fan as well. And because I went to Syracuse, I’m a big NCAA basketball fan.

Favorite vacation spot? Sea Isle City, New Jersey, for sentimental value. I come from a giant family, and we would always go there.

Favorite thing about NEPA? I don’t think I realized how much I loved this area until I started working here. I get to meet people from every corner of NEPA every day. We’re in a unique place. I think we’re in a place that values family, and for me, I had an ideal childhood here. It was very “Leave It To Beaver,” and I think we value that as a culture. I like the people, I like our kind of homegrown values and I like how passionate people are about this being their hometown and about the region’s history.

Favorite food? Anything that my Mom cooks, specifically her pasta primavera.

All-time favorite movies? “The Little Mermaid” and “Big Fish.”

Favorite quote or catchphrase? Be like a duck – calm on the surface, but paddling like hell underneath.

Favorite author? J.R.R. Tolkien. I also like Jane Austen.

Biggest pet peeve? Since I spend a majority of my day on the road, it’s people that text while they drive. People do it all the time. And from the TV truck, I can see them, and I can see what it causes you to do. It’s crazy.

Who has had the greatest impact on your life? I’m a little bit of everyone in my family, in a lot of different ways. Both of my parents have been supportive of everything I’ve wanted to try, no matter how crazy, and I think that had a tremendous impact on me. But in my adulthood, I’d say my Dad. He’s been a constant example to do what you love and do it well.

MEET is a new feature in Weekender that profiles local people from throughout NEPA.

Alan K. Stout is a regular contributor to Weekender. In addition to the MEET feature, he also writes about the NEPA music scene.

By Alan K. Stout

For Weekender

https://www.theweekender.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_stacylange_headshot.jpg