BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

One day, as Adrienne was embroiled in a heated debate with another student in civics class, the school’s speech teacher happened to walk by the classroom. Attracted by Adrienne’s voice, the teacher stopped and listened. In short order, the teacher had recruited Adrienne to participate in a speech contest, calling her his diamond in the rough. After drafting a 10-minute speech, the teacher made her practice it over and over. His goal, Adrienne recalls, was to teach her to continue talking calmly and confidently in the face of any distractions. So, he would throw paper at her face, make loud, unexpected noises—even untie her shoes. He kept it up until Adrienne could recite her speech without a pause or second glance at his antics. Their hard work paid off and Adrienne won the contest. Subsequently, the teacher began entering Adrienne in regional speech competitions, which she also won. Since she had finally outgrown that long awkward stage, Adrienne’s grandfather entered her in a beauty pageant where she’d used her speech as a talent. While attending junior college, her counselor suggested that she transfer to the University of Southern California and earn a degree in communications. She’d taken her counselor’s advice and had been accepted. In that first semester, while walking across campus one day, Adrienne spotted a poster: TV HOST WANTED. Adrienne auditioned and was named host of not one, but two shows. Both prepared her by honing her interview skills. Her biggest guest: George Lucas. Seeking God “As a child I was fascinated by the universe,” Adrienne recalls. “I used to stare at the night sky and think that if God had hung all those stars in place, He surely had a great plan for my life. Although I believed in God, I didn’t have a personal relationship with Him. “After graduating from college, I realized that getting a full-time job in news would take an act of God. Though given great opportunities, I was less experienced than anyone I knew at USC. It was highly competitive. At the same time, the general manager at the PBS station started inviting me to her church. The first service, I ran to the altar and made a profession of faith. “Afterward, I stopped auditioning for things that were sexually charged. I also stopped dating. Instead, I read my Bible and prayed, asking God for direction. I wanted to learn to hear His voice. This went on for months. My walls were covered with notes of verses, words, quotes and things I wanted to accomplish.” But even with that leap of faith, her circumstances didn’t immediately change. She was still in a barely furnished apartment in a lower income neighborhood in Los Angeles and hadn’t received her ‘big break.’ Adrienne suddenly had a thought: What if it wasn’t God’s will for her to be on television? “I realized that I wanted His will in my life more than I wanted my own dream,” she said. “So I gave up my dream right then. I said, ‘Lord, I don’t want to do TV if that’s not what I’m supposed to do.’” Convinced that if God wanted her in television He’d open the door, she continued to host the talk show, supplementing her income by taking an occasional modeling job, working part time in a law office and waitressing. She started applying the lessons she was learning in church, tithing consistently for the first time, using her faith to believe for more customers and encouraging the staff. Many a night she’d mop the floor praying for her dream job or hunker down in the stock room, journaling ideas for her own TV program and sketching outfits she would wear in her new career. A thought flitted across her mind: 'If you want to be a journalist, you have to go where the jobs are.' “There was an upcoming journalism conference in Washington, D.C. I sensed the Lord nudging me to go. The problem was it cost $700, which didn’t include an airline ticket, hotel and food. I didn’t have the money. 14 : BVOV

• Cover