Horace Mann - Spring 2017 - 12

HM Alumni Address "The Issues" in Their Work and Lives

to develop her response. "I
left a great job, a job I loved,
because I felt compelled to do
something," Setrakian says.
Journey to innovation
Lara Setrakian began her journey into journalism, and to becoming an important change
maker, as a student at Horace
Mann School. "There was one
pivotal moment at Horace
Mann that shaped my choice
of career: Book Day 1999,"
Setrakian relates. The book
that year was Davita's Harp, a
novel about the Spanish Civil
War by Chaim Potok. "David
Gelber, then a producer at
Lara Setrakian '00 is pictured here on a reporting assignment in the Middle East before launching News Deeply. Setrakian is
CBS News, was a speaker in
scheduled to speak with HM students at an assembly in May 2017.
one of the workshops. I was
As Setrakian and her team explore about 35 new topics and
captivated by his talk on producing television news pieces from
envision dozens more Deeplies, News Deeply's founder promthe war in Bosnia. It inspired me to write him a letter-handises "this is just the beginning."
written! On paper! In an envelope!-asking if I could be his summer intern. He said yes. That summer at CBS opened my mind
Compelled to act
to a career in journalism, which led to everything I've done since.
Setrakian's rush to launch Syria Deeply as the situation there
I've told Ms. Bartels many times over, Book Day literally changed
grew more critical might serve as a lesson to those seeking
my life!" Setrakian says, referring to Caroline Bartels, HM Middle
to redeem the news industry and restore its essential role in
and Upper Division Library Department Chair, who organizes
today's era of echo-chamber, sensational, and purportedly
HM's annual Book Day.
and even "actual" fake news. Working as a Middle East correSetrakian described this turning point at a Women's Issues
spondent for ABC since 2007, in 2010 Setrakian found herself
Club dinner at HM in 2013, telling the audience that Gelber
reporting on the Arab Spring and its spread across the region.
also advised her that if she wanted to go into TV reporting she
As she followed the movement's procession to Syria Setrakian
should "find her voice." Radio was a good way to do that, he
witnessed it waylaid there by President Bashar al-Assad, and
suggested. "Finding my voice wasn't difficult," Setrakian related.
the start of the Syrian civil war. Setrakian had seen journalists
"I was always a communicator. I was on JSA (Junior State of
cover the region from protest to protest, not having enough
America) at Horace Mann. Before I was 'the girl on TV' I was
time to explore the big picture. She'd also watched reporting
'the girl who ran for Student Body President.'"
on Iraq wane toward the end of the war, despite the fact that
Setrakian continued to cultivate her voice as a student at
people-American forces included-were still dying there.
Harvard, working on the college radio station. However, her
Setrakian worried that this was happening again.
first job after graduating magna cum laude was not in news re"I was covering the revolutions as a pan-regional corresponporting, but at the global management organization McKinsey &
dent," Setrakian recalls. "Very little information was out there
Co., an experience she says has helped her run and grow News
about what was going on in Syria. The PEW Research Center
Deeply. The position also led Setrakian, literally and figuratively,
has the data on that. The American media cycle completely
to where she is today.
ignored Syria, and look how it jumped up and bit us in the butt.
On a business trip to Beirut for McKinsey, Setrakian was
We were missing our mandate in how we were covering the
sitting at a seaside café when a bomb exploded nearby. That
most important story in the Middle East. The media was not the
bomb killed Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21
victim here. We dropped the ball." As Setrakian often points out, others. Setrakian realized then and there that she was "in the
"If we don't cover the wars we're in, we're never going to cover
right place, right time, wrong job" when the bomb went off. She
the wars we're not in."
left her consulting job and applied to ABC News as an off-air
Rather than contribute to this problem, Setrakian decided
reporter, gathering background on major news events to help
to pursue an idea she had for addressing it. Though reluctant
producers bring on-the-scene details to broadcast stories.
to suspend her reporting on the suffering she saw around her,
Setrakian soon ended up on camera, covering the Duke
she nevertheless felt she could better serve by fostering deeper University lacrosse case. Impressed by her reporting and
understanding of the situation. She took a leave of absence
engaging on-air presence ABC assigned her, at age 25, to a

Horace Mann Magazine Spring 2017

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