Katie Couric meets with SMU students before sold-out lecture

By Bruce Tomaso

Katie Couric, now a special correspondent for ABC News, spoke Tuesday evening to a sold-out audience in Southern Methodist University's McFarlin Auditorium, as part of SMU's renowned Tate Lecture Series.

Katie Couric (middle) surrounded by SMU students and holding an SMU Journalism T-shirt.

Before taking the stage, the veteran journalist -- perhaps the only person on Earth to have interviewed Glenn Beck and Shakira, Sarah Palin and Lady Gaga -- allowed the tables to be turned.

She sat with students from SMU and area high schools and patiently answered their questions on a wide range of subjects, from her toughest interview subjects to her advice for professional women, from her work as a cancer-research advocate to the duty of the media "to shine a light on social injustice ... to shine a light on oppression."

Here's a story by Laura C. Murphy of The Daily Campus about Couric's meeting with the students.

Later, Couric posted the photo above on her Twitter page. It's her with SMU senior Derek Hubbard, who moderated the students' Q&A session. The photo below, also from her Twitter page, is her with a group of journalism students. (Couric's in the middle, holding the SMU T-shirt.)

In The Daily Campus story, Hubbard is quoted as saying: "I thought she answered everybody's questions in a great way to where they were able to really get a sense of who she is as well as a sense of the field of journalism."