Andrea Linares

As a 10-year-old girl in Miami, Andrea Linares’ mother took her on a tour of TV stations. And that’s when she became determined to study journalism.  

Today Linares, a 2008 graduate of the broadcast journalism program, has received two nominations for the Emmy Awards and is the news anchor of Mundo Fox, a Spanish-language TV station based in Doral.

“Always knowing what she wanted, coming every day to class like a professional, very well dressed,” is the way Professor Paul Driscoll remembers her.

Linares began her television career as a full-time student, taking internships with the investigative unit at WTVJ NBC 6 and later working as a reporter for WLTV Univision 23.

“It doesn’t matter if I didn’t sleep and I was exhausted and stressed a lot of times because of work and school,” said Linares, 29. “It will always pay off at the end. When you get medals, degrees and diplomas, it means everything.”

Linares also got field experience by working on NewsVision and UniMiami, news programs in English and Spanish respectively, broadcast by the university’s television station, UMTV.

“It was a way to get your hands on the equipment, and have the opportunity to go live,” she said. “That also helped with the internships, because the reporters noticed when somebody had field experience.”

While at Univision, Linares was nominated twice for Emmy Awards. The first nomination was for the two-part investigative report “Rodando con la Muerte” (Rolling with Death), about the dangers posed by new tires that have been exposed to heat for too long a time while on the sales racks. She was 21 at the time. The second nomination was for “Belleza Peligrosa” (Dangerous Beauty), a story about the dangers posed by some of the ingredients used in hair treatments.

It was while working on “Rolling with Death” that she met Armando Pico, who was the project’s cameraman/editor. They married in 2011 and have a daughter, Camila, born in November of last year.

Today, as a mother and journalist, Linares said she is facing a difficult schedule.

“It’s been tough,” she said. “I thought I was going to have a little angel, but it has been like a roller coaster. However it is the greatest lesson.”

As a reporter, Linares has had the opportunity to interview high-profile political figures and celebrities such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Marco Rubio, Puerto Rican singer Olga Tañon and musicians Gloria and Emilio Estefan.

Linares interviewed Gingrich in 2012 when he was a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.

“It was from one day to another,” she recalled. “I have to be honest, I was nervous because I’d never done an interview like that,” Linares said.

Linares, who joined Mundo Fox in 2011, is on the air Monday through Friday, at 5 and 10 p.m. Her team focuses on local news, covering topics such as crime and politics.

“It’s an environment where we can all share our creative ideas for work,” she said. “It’s a smaller news team, and that’s why we work like an extended family.”