Sacramento State/Steve McKayLester Holt, who was proudly #MadeAtSacState, became the permanent chief anchor of NBC Nightly News on June 18, less than a month after receiving an honorary doctorate from Sacramento State.
President Alexander Gonzalez presented Holt with the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during the May 23 College of Arts and Letters graduation ceremony at Sleep Train Arena.
“I am honored, and I certainly accept this degree with deep gratitude,” said Holt. “I am so proud to be and (to) have been associated with this university.”
Holt was a government major who left Sacramento State during his junior year to work at a San Francisco radio station. Within 18 months, he got a job at the CBS-TV affiliate in New York City and was on his way to becoming one of the nation’s most highly regarded broadcast journalists.
“I began with dreams of being a big-time disc jockey, but it was at Sac State that I was exposed to journalism, and it was there that my interest and my focus really narrowed in on becoming a news person,” he said.
Holt had filled in for suspended anchor Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News desk since February. He also co-anchors the weekend edition of Today and anchors Dateline NBC.
Read our story for more on Holt and Sac State’s exciting Spring 2015 Commencement: http://bit.ly/1H3HS0q. And don’t miss this shout-out to Holt’s Nightly News appointment from the California State University, with a link to the video of his doctorate acceptance speech at Commencement: http://calstate.edu/. – Dixie Reid