Surrounded by journalists twice her age, Caroline Powers saw U.S. Sen. Gary Peters exit the building in Detroit, fresh from winning the November election.

He began walking toward a Grand Rapids journalist when Powers pulled him over.

It was this assertiveness that won Powers her first interview. As a reporter for News Central 34, the Farmington Hills senior knows that the subjects won’t come to her. She has to go to them.

"I pulled him over and he looked at me like ‘Wait a minute, who are you? What are you doing, little girl?’" Powers said. "If I had only said ‘Gary Peters, over here!’ then I’d never have been able to get a question out of him."

Powers was a news anchor on Mount Pleasant's News Central 34 for five semesters. She's now a field reporter, where she does live reports on the street and helps produce stories that may be going on around the town.

Before any live report, she researches her stories to make sure she's knowledgeable on the topic and is prepared for any question thrown her way.

"If someone asks me a question and I can’t answer it, then it doesn’t look good, and why would you want to watch me do the news again?" she said.

News Central 34 is on Monday through Friday and has trusted sites they work with, including CNN and CBS.

As a student producer, Saginaw senior Sam Nuerminger arrives to the newsroom early to find and write stories and start developing a tablet for the show to run on. The days with more news, he said, can actually be less stressful because there’s less risk of having to elongate stories that aren’t as interesting to fill blank space.

“You’re always fighting the clock, because we could end at 4:59 and you have to fill that space or else there’s just black space and that’s a broadcaster's nightmare,” he said. “It’s huge teamwork. Everyone has to be on and we have to all communicate.”

New York senior Jazz Pompilus is well acquainted with the stress that comes with working on News Central 34, especially since he facilitates bringing the show from start to finish as a graduate assistant.

From setting up the computers to copy editing and verifying the script, Pompilus doesn’t have a typical work routine because of the unforeseen circumstances that are often thrown his way.

“Things don’t often go as planned and I get that. It’s like I have a routine, but it only works two out of the five times I’ll be there for the week,” he said. “My stress levels have gotten so high, but it’s been good. I’ve started drinking green tea now, and it helps me a lot to be calm and cool for whatever adversity gets in my way.”

Despite the constant high stress levels, he admits he enjoys the fast paced nature of the job. He’s learned to think quick on his feet and admits that no matter what adversity is shot at him, he can “dodge quickly and shoot back.”

He cites election day as his favorite day on the job because of the energy sparking in the air throughout the newsroom.

“The rush was just awesome. I can’t explain the euphoria that I experienced. People were running around getting numbers here and percentages there,” he said. “I just love the fast pace. You feel accomplished on everything you do that day.”