by Samaia Hernandez Myrecordjournal.com

     WALLINGFORD - Four years ago, when town native Brynn Gingras relocated to central Missouri, it was with the goal of winding up back home in Connecticut. Last month, her dream was realized when the 27-year-old became NBC Connecticut's newest reporter.
     "There's no way I would have got the job here if I didn't spend all that time there," said Gingras Friday, after wrapping up an early-morning shift at WVIT in West Hartford.
     Since 2006, the former captain and four-year starter of Yale University's basketball team has become a household face to some Midwesterners, bringing them breaking news on anything from local business to the state's political scene at KMIZ-TV in Columbia, Mo., an ABC/Fox affiliate.
     When morning reporter Susan Goodman - one of 18 members of the on-air team at NBC Connecticut - decided to take a break from the grind of daily news to spend time with her firstborn, News Director Michael St. Peter scanned dozens of demo reels from hopeful candidates across the country.
     Gingras, a 2000 graduate of Lyman Hall High School, stood out from the rest - and the fact that she both grew up and attended college in Connecticut was like icing on the cake in a business in which few newscasters are actually from the area they cover.
     "From the people whose tapes we saw and who we interviewed, she was one of the better storytellers, she has good energy on air and it was a plus that she's from Connecticut," said St. Peter in his glass-enclosed office at the new high-definition facility that opened last summer.
     Her hours are far from glamorous - she starts at 2:30 a.m. - and after three weeks, Gingras still hasn't figured out a sleeping pattern. Still, she said it feels good to be home.
     "I was very lucky that there was a job opening here and that I got hired," she said.
     After Yale, Gingras set off for Manhattan, where she worked behind the scenes in the documentaries department for CBS for a year and a half. When she wasn't actually working, she was networking in the industry and commuting to Long Island for a television newsroom program at the New York Institute of Film.
     "I wanted to find a way to get in front of the camera," she said.
     Gingras learned how to make a demo reel at the institute to send to news directors across the country in the hope that one of them would take a chance on a new face. More than 100 submissions later, she received a call from Missouri, where she climbed the ranks from daily reporting to anchoring after two years.
     Her first few months in the college town of Columbia, home to the University of Missouri, were marked by culture shock. The thought of an entire community shutting down for a college football game was something new, but Gingras grew fond of Midwestern ways and culture, she said. She even took advantage of the university's graduate program in journalism and began taking classes toward a master's degree.
     Wherever she ends up - New York, Connecticut, the Midwest - right now Gingras is basking in her new role in a career that allows her to meet new people each day on the job.
     "For now," she said. "Connecticut feels good."