Little do Sharon High School students realize where the morning announcements may lead.

For one graduate, they led to NBC's "Today" show.

Jessica Stuart, 27, a 1992 Sharon High School alumnus, and one of the associate producers of the popular morning show, spent time Tuesday morning with some of the high school newspaper staff and visited with friends and former teachers.

"I actually walked back to my desk," Ms. Stuart said, pointing to the back of the classroom.

Their student adviser, Molly Gavin, also a junior-senior high English teacher, graduated with Ms. Stuart and had invited her friend to speak to the class.

Her career started the day after she graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in communications.

"I was hired by NBC the day after I graduated," she said, adding with a laugh, "That was after I called the head of NBC three days a week for three months."

Her job as desk assistant was made up mostly of what she called "grunt work."

"I'd answer the phones, get faxes, go to Starbucks and get coffee for people," she said. After three months, when they couldn't find someone to do an interview, she was given two hours to prepare to go to cover a news conference with O.J. Simpson.

"You really learn by trial by fire," Ms. Stuart said, adding that she stayed with that position for a little less than a year before getting the position with the "Today" show in Washington, D.C. The show also has offices in New York, England, Chicago and Los Angeles.

"I saw it as a real opportunity. One hundred people applied for it," she said, adding that she spent four years at that post.

The Monica Lewinsky scandal made the news during that time.

"When people were sick of it, they'd turn the TV off. I couldn't turn the TV off. I worked it seven days a week," she said.

She has been based in Chicago for about a year in her present position.

"I'm the person who calls the interviewee the day before, book them for the show, prep them and tell them, 'This is what we're talking about,' ask them about their specialties," Ms. Stuart said. "Then I write a paper, how to pronounce their name, background information, all the questions, and an intro."

Recently, she covered the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. "It definitely has its perks, but it's not that glamorous," Ms. Stuart said of her job, describing the early morning hours and being crammed into a room full of computers.

In May, she'll be spending a month covering the show's annual wedding series.

And though she has met many famous people, including Jennifer Lopez, Presidents Clinton and Bush, actor Michael Douglas and basketball great Michael Jordan, she enjoys everyday people the most.

"The regular people are my favorite part. There just so excited to be on TV," Ms. Stuart said.

Her advice to students looking into the communications field: Get plenty of experience.

"I worked very hard to get a lot of experience in college," she said, describing the late night radio station she worked for.

"Good grades in college are not enough. Get an internship somewhere," Ms. Stuart said. "If you want to be in journalism or communications, you have to be willing to make a lot of sacrifices. Sometimes you have to give up part of your life."

Though the hours can be crazy, she wouldn't trade what she does for any other career.

"Someday I'd like to teach -- years down the road. I can't imagine working anywhere else right now," she said. "I never thought I'd be working at NBC. I was really lucky to get this position.

"When it gets hard, I just remember I won't do it forever, which helps me do it today."

Ms. Stuart's family, Kathy and Nick Gracenin and sister Mallory, live in Transfer.