BERNE — A Berne resident who has studied communications for years will be one of over half-a-dozen honorees at the Women’s Press Club of New York’s annual awards and scholarship dinner on Oct. 24. Mary Alice Molgard, a communications professor at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, will be receiving the Excellence in Career Achievement Award.

Molgard, who has been part of the Women’s Press Club for years, said she was honored to receive the award. She became involved in journalism and communications at an early age, first writing for her high school newspaper, then reporting and directing the news desk for her college radio station.

At Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications, the college established one of the first university television stations, and Molgard served as an anchor there as well, she said.

“I really became fascinated with the news in general,” she said. It was the fast-paced, breaking news that really caught her attention, but she said she like radio better than television or print journalism.

“I always thought radio gave me the opportunity to write more creatively and really tell a story … You really have to capture your audience’s attention.”

After graduating in 1977, Molgard eventually moved to Boone, North Carolina, and worked outside her field in county government, when she was told that there was an opening at Appalachian State University for teaching communications law. Molgard started out working part-time at the university while still working full-time for the county — she would take an extra long lunch break to teach her class during the day.

Molgard eventually became a full-time professor at the university, and then taught at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, before she started teaching at The College of Saint Rose in Albany in 1985. Her specialty has been in communications law, which includes discussions of First Amendment rights, libel, invasion of privacy, and most recently internet law.

Molgard has also volunteered as a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross and the Berne Fire District, and has offered her services in public relations for other organizations in the state. Molgard said she first became involved in the Berne Fire Department after she moved to the town in 1989. She had no connection to the town; she had no children who would attend the school and wasn’t involved in local politics, she said.

“One night, there was a terrible fire just down the street from my house,” said Molgard, describing how she saw volunteers working together to try to save the house. She wound up joining the fire company herself. It has given her a community, and a chance to respond to fast-breaking events, she said.

“It’s been one of the best things in my life,” she concluded.