Meet Roger Clark (‘85), Features Reporter at NY1!

While many Stuyvesant students spend their days hunched over textbooks, dreaming of becoming the next great engineer or computer scientist, Stuyvesant alum Roger Clark (‘85) spent his high school years focused on activities that ranged from The Stuyvesant Spectator to the bowling team. Combining his passions for sports and journalism, Clark majored in Broadcast Journalism at Syracuse University, and after working at broadcasting stations across the Northeast, he became the Features Reporter at NY1.

Clark went to middle school at I.S. 190. At the time, the I.S. 190 principal highly encouraged students to attend specialized high schools and even hosted tutoring sessions to help them prepare for the SHSAT. Clark’s parents are divorced, and since his father lived in Staten Island, his commute to Stuyvesant to take the SHSAT was longer than those of his peers. “We had breakfast at Perkin’s pancakes on Saturdays, and then my dad drove me into the city [to take] the test,” Clark said. “My dad was a school bus driver, and one of the kids he drove went to Stuyvesant, so he knew exactly where it was.”

Through his high SHSAT score, Clark gained admission to Stuyvesant. Upon starting high school, he was immediately interested in joining sports teams, but most were inaccessible to him as a freshman. “I’m a big sports fan,” Clark said. “The thing was that freshman year, classes went until 3:40 p.m. and Stuyvesant [didn’t] really have freshman teams. As much as I wanted to participate freshman year, I wasn’t able to.” 

However, Clark eventually became a four-sport athlete, competing in Stuyvesant bowling, baseball, football, and track. He played sports in his neighborhood as well, participating in Little League, travel baseball, and the Junior Basketball League. While he claims not to have excelled in most of his sports, he found great success in bowling. “I lettered in bowling,” Clark said. “I was pretty good at bowling because I bowled every Saturday in Queens at Hollywood Lanes.”

Eager to make the most of the opportunities available to him, Clark participated in many extracurricular activities throughout his time at Stuyvesant. Outside of sports, Clark developed his writing skills in many publications; he wrote for The Spectator’s Sports Department, the Bio Research newsletter, and the Stuyvesant Sports Magazine. “It wasn’t because I was trying to get extra credit or anything,” Clark said. “I just wanted to do stuff, and I did as much as I could.”

In regards to his academic career at Stuyvesant, Clark considers himself an average student—his GPA was around the 85 percent mark. However, along with his humanities-centered extracurriculars, Clark excelled at English and history. “I was always a great writer, so when it came to English, I always had [approximately] a 99,” Clark said. “I was a history buff. I still am.”

At Stuyvesant, Clark elected to participate in a journalism class that explored articles from The New York Times and discussed different journalistic techniques. However, Clark felt that he learned more from his Stuyvesant extracurriculars: “[My Journalism teacher] told us, ‘Go work for The Spectator.’ ‘Go check out the yearbook.’ That was the good thing about Stuyvesant. There were so many opportunities. They say you learn more when you’re actually doing, so I think I learned more working in The Spectator.”

Clark also pursued many other English electives, including Creative Writing. His Creative Writing teacher, Frank McCourt—who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for his memoir Angela’s Ashes in 1997—had a profound impact on him. “He was from Ireland, and he became a teacher, and he was the best storyteller of his time,” Clark said. “We used to urge him to ‘please write a book and tell the story of your childhood.’ He eventually did years later, and it blew up. Next thing you know, he’s in the White House on St. Patrick’s Day.”

McCourt was in charge of reviewing senior theses and giving out school awards at graduation. While Clark did not receive any awards, one of his fondest memories of Stuyvesant was his thesis being recognized as one of the best. “I wrote my senior thesis [...] about this old rock band called the Beach Boys, because [they] sold this image that was clean and Americana, but they had all kinds of problems behind the scenes,” Clark said. “There was an award for the best senior thesis and I didn’t win [it], but I remember [McCourt] saying ‘Oh, and Roger Clark’s about the Beach Boys, blah blah blah.’ [...] I just remember that [moment] felt really good. It was something about the fact that [McCourt] mentioned me.”

Clark also had many pivotal experiences in other classes. “We had a great teacher back then, Ms. Kantor. She was a social studies teacher, but she taught a law class, and it was cool. They took us to see an actual court case downtown at the State Supreme Court,” Clark said. “I remember the judge. [...] He said, ‘Oh, I understand we have some Stuyvesant students here. I just want you all to know that I went to Clinton High School.’ But he actually knew we were there, which was crazy.”

Clark greatly appreciates the emphasis Stuyvesant placed on a well-rounded education. “I took art at Stuyvesant, and I remember there was an assignment to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we went on [...] an art crawl through the museum,” Clark said. “Being a kid from Queens and coming from a lower-middle class background, we didn’t go to the museum, [...] but at Stuyvesant I was now forced to do it. Now, if I do go to a museum or an art gallery, I kind of know what I’m talking about because I got that first launch into the art world in high school.” Today, Art Appreciation students at Stuyvesant continue to follow this tradition, engaging in a MET Museum project at the end of the semester. 

In his senior year, Clark applied to only a few universities due to his intent to major in journalism and broadcasting: Syracuse University, Notre Dame University, Northwestern University, and one safety school: Buffalo State University. “I didn’t apply to that many [schools]. I had read an article in Sports Illustrated about Syracuse’s journalism program because a lot of famous sportscasters [went] there, and I was almost sold on it at that moment. The only other school I was interested in going to was Notre Dame, and that was—I hate to say it—because of its sports [teams].”

While Clark had few applications to complete, that’s not to say his college process didn’t have its ups and downs. “Each [application] was individually typed, which was a pain in the neck. [...] You would literally get it in the mail and put it into a typewriter,” Clark said. “I was applying to Northwestern and it was getting closer to the deadline. I’m in my bedroom and my mom is in the other room, and she’s like, ‘Roger, it’s time for dinner.’ [...] So, she brings me a plate of pasta and she puts the pasta down next to the typewriter. I swear, like five seconds later, I knocked the pasta over onto the application.” Needless to say, Clark’s sauce-stained application was not accepted.

Though Clark was interested in writing for his school paper in college as well, things did not go as planned. “I went to the school newspaper [on] the first day of class and I went to apply for it. They said to fill out this index card, and then I never got called,” Clark said. “Instead, I went over to the radio station, and I wound up doing a little bit over at the school radio station. I was really into music too, and I got into this band and started writing a lot of songs. [...] I started thinking that was my calling, and it kind of veered me off the path. [...] By the time I figured it out, I was a senior, so I didn’t do as [many extracurriculars] as I should have. That’s one of my regrets.”

After graduation, Clark faced difficulties with finding broadcasting jobs right away. “In those days, the idea of someone in a Midwestern town hiring someone who sounded like me, with the Queens [accent], was unheard of,” Clark said. “It took almost a year from graduation before I got a job. It was at a tiny radio station in Oneonta, New York.”

Over time, he worked his way up, finding jobs at small networks in different cities. While Clark had always wanted to eventually return to New York City, he found it difficult to constantly move from town to town. “I kind of wormed my way back home,” Clark said. “I wanted to work in New York City because this is my hometown, but it took a while. What happens is you get complacent: you get to a town, you start getting used to things around there, you start making friends.”

Eventually, Clark found his job at NY1 through a connection from his job at the time. “I worked at this place called News Center Six in Wappingers Falls, New York. My predecessor was at NY1,” Clark said. “She reached out to me, and goes, ‘What do you know about Staten Island?’ And I said, ‘My dad lives there and my dad’s side of the family is also from Staten Island.’ And she goes, ‘Send a tape right now. There’s an opening for the Staten Island reporter [at NY1].’”

After working as the Staten Island reporter for three years, Clark received his current position of Features reporter. “I used to fill in on the morning show and I worked it really well, and I think they were like, ‘This guy’s all right. Let’s get him on more.’ And then, just by random, the old Features reporter left,” Clark said. “Then, I got the position I still have, which is crazy. I’ve had it for 19 years, and I’m the Features reporter, which is why I do all kinds of different, funky things all the time.”

One aspect of Clark’s job that is particularly meaningful to him is his ability to make an impact on the causes that are important to him. “We’re going to [cover] God’s Love We Deliver, which is this great organization that gets food to people who are too sick to cook for themselves. [...] What’s great is [that] I’ll be on the air and the people from the organization will tell me [that] a hundred people just donated after my segment, which is crazy,” Clark said. “You can do some good with the reporting—that’s the best part about it.”

Clark appreciates the storytelling opportunities that his broadcasting career has opened up for him. He credits much of his success to his experiences at Stuyvesant. “It’s been cool for a kid from New York City to be able to tell the stories of his hometown. It’s opened some doors to me that I never thought I’d go through,” Clark said. “I do owe a lot to Stuyvesant for making me know so much. It’s unbelievable how much information you retain from high school. It really does come in handy.”