Alumni Spotlight: Ashlee Baracy
10/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Spirit Department
Ashlee Baracy ('07) was a three-year member of the University of Michigan dance team while earning her degree in general studies. After graduation, she went on to win Miss Michigan in 2008. Since 2010, Metro Detroit has woken up with her on Local 4 News Morning, where she serves as the traffic and entertainment reporter. She continues to add to her portfolio at Channel 4, as she also does general assignment reporting and recently earned her meteorology certification.
Baracy recently sat down with MGoBlue.com to talk about her dance team days, how she went from the sidelines at Michigan Stadium to the living rooms of thousands of TV viewers and her recent involvement with the Michigan Marching Band's halftime performance against Utah. Plus -- on this first day of October, breast cancer awareness month -- she discusses her personal mission to raise money for breast cancer research.
Q. How did you become involved with the Michigan dance team?
A. I have been dancing since I was two and a half, but I didn't even know Michigan had a dance team my freshman year. I was teaching dance at my hometown of Westland once a week -- about 25 minutes east of Ann Arbor -- but was going through dance withdrawals because I was used to dancing six days a week. I was at my first football game as a freshman, and I saw a dance team. I was in the student section and thought 'why am I not on this team?' It looked so cool that they were on the field. I auditioned going into my sophomore year (in the spring of my freshman year). I made the team and ended up being a captain my junior and senior years. Out of everything that happened in college, dance team by far was the best experience that I had.
Q. What was one of your favorite experiences with the dance team?
A. The football game where we were down three touchdowns to Michigan State (in 2004) but we came back to end up winning in triple overtime. The tying catch was made by Braylon Edwards in the end zone right by the dance team [northeast corner]. Here it is, it's getting cold outside, and we're all a little in shock by how the game is going, and the Michigan State player who was trying to tackle Braylon Edwards ended up tackling me instead on the sidelines! I took a cleat to the shin, and one of the other dancers went flying into a tuba [the Michigan Marching Band used to be stationed in that corner with some members on the field] -- she bent the tuba, and I ended up hobbling around. Val [Stead-Potsos, the dance team head coach] asked if I needed medical attention, and I told her 'you are not pulling me from this game, I need to stay until the end.' It was painful, but I stuck it out. We ended up winning! I get to see Lloyd Carr at a number of events where I'm emceeing, and I always joke that I was the extra man on the field that helped Michigan win that game -- I made the block for Braylon Edwards.
Q. What inspired you to pursue a career in media?
A. I fell into it a unique way. I started out in engineering at U-M, and it just wasn't my cup of tea after two years of classes. During my years at Michigan, my mom was battling breast cancer. She was actually diagnosed right before I came to Michigan. My mom couldn't work, and my dad's overtime was cut, so my family's income was half (what it had been). Once I was at Michigan, I needed to help pay for my schooling -- and teaching dance one night a week wasn't nearly enough. A dance teacher of mine suggested the Miss America organization. I laughed because there was no way I was getting up on stage in a two-piece bathing suit and high heels! But she told me that it is the largest scholarship provider for women in the nation, and because I had a talent as a dancer and could throw on an old prom dress, that I should give it a try. I did and fell in love, and three years later I had won more than $30,000 in scholarships, and I could pay for my schooling. That led me to broadcasting. I did some interviews related to the pageants, and I liked it. My senior year at U-M, I got an internship at Fox 2 in Detroit and loved it. I auditioned for the traffic reporter position at Channel 4 when they had a big contest in 2007. I was a top-four finalist but didn't get the job. A couple of years went by, and the position was open. Channel 4 remembered me -- I was doing work for my local cable channel in Westland -- and they called to ask if I would be interested in auditioning again, and this time I got the job. It will be four years in December. I took a unique opportunity and ran with it. Very few people start off in a market as big as Detroit, and in their hometown, no less.
Q. Working on a morning show, what are your hours like?
A. A typical day for me is not a typical day for most people. My first alarm goes off at 1:30 a.m. I snooze it once or twice. After I turn the snooze button off, I get up and go through entertainment news on my phone, because I do entertainment reporting as well. I pick a few stories and email them to producers back at the station -- so I'm doing work before I even get in the shower in the morning. I'm out the door a little after 3, because I start at 3:30 in the morning. We have a meeting at 3:45, and I'm usually done about 11:30 a.m. I try to go to bed about 8 o'clock, and that's never a full night's sleep. It hinders your social life, but you have to be committed to your job.
Q. How did breast cancer advocacy become such an important mission for you?
A. Having the opportunity to have a platform about breast cancer awareness when I was Miss Michigan was huge. That's part of the reason I got into television. I realized that my crown was a megaphone for my voice, and I wondered how I could keep that up because you're only Miss Michigan for a year. I have been so touched by breast cancer and cancer in general -- my mom is a breast cancer survivor, and my dad is a prostate cancer survivor -- and there is a long history of cancer in my family. I wanted to find a way to make an impact and television allows that. Being a local TV personality, people take notice when you say things. Television gives me a platform to give back.
It's my mission to not only share stories, but raise money and raise awareness. Ten years before my mom was diagnosed, her cousin died of breast cancer. It was the same form my mom was eventually diagnosed with, but within those 10 years a treatment had been found. I believe events like Race for the Cure and Making Strides truly make a difference. They funded research that saved my mom's life.
Q. What did you enjoy the most about being back at your alma mater?
A. To pick one thing is difficult. Being on the sidelines with the dance team during the first half was nice, sort of took me back to my roots. The University of Michigan Marching Band was so gracious -- it was so humbling to work with students and the staff, just a wonderful experience. I recently got my meteorology certification, so meeting Stephanie Abrams from the Weather Channel (who also participated in the halftime show) was a dream come true. It was unique that I was able to meet her at my alma mater. Even though I am on television every morning, we don't see our viewing audience -- it's just me and a camera. So to have more than 100,000 people in that stadium, in your visual line of sight, it was really pretty incredible.
The recently created Office of Alumni Engagement strives to foster a community, recognize the holistic student-athlete and honor the great Michigan Athletics history. This alumni spotlight illustrates the impact that our alumni are having around the world and how they stay engaged with Michigan.
