Alexandria Gales, a 2008 graduate of Cal State San Bernardino, received two Emmy awards at the 61st Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards. Gales, who is an associate producer at PBS station KCET's So Cal Connected news magazine show, received an Emmy award for the documentary, "Inside Locke High," in the educational reporting category.

The PBS documentary profiles the lives of three Locke High School students in Watts, an area dominated by rival gangs and ranked the third lowest academically in California. A video clip of the documentary can be viewed at the KCET Web site for the report.

She received a second Commemorative Emmy award for the So Cal Connected Show in the category of the "informational / public affairs series" for her overall work on the project.

She received her awards at a ceremony in August.

"I feel honored and humbled by the awards," said the 27-year-old Foothill Ranch, Calif., resident. "It seems very unreal to me; I never dreamed I would have a career in television and receive not one Emmy, but two, just one year after graduation from CSUSB."

Gales, who earned a bachelor's degree in communication studies, attributes her quick success to working with the campus radio station, Coyote Radio, and her experience as one of the first reporters and an anchor on the CSUSB "Local Matters" television news show.

"I owe much of this to the guidance of CSUSB communication studies professor Michael Wichman, who mentored me through my academic path," said Gales. "I remember he would always say to me after a taping of 'Local Matters,' 'You're going to be great in this field.'"

In addition, the internship she did with the Los Angeles CBS station while a student at CSUSB helped lead to her present position with KCET.

For more information about CSUSB's department of communication studies, contact (909) 537-5815 and visit artsletters.csusb.edu/dept-comm.aspx.