Blogs

[#1]

MAJOR:   MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

CURRENT JOB:   Program host at QVC

Although Antonella Nester ’87 Sci knew by the third grade she wanted to pursue a career as a performer—the applause following a turn in the school play was just too exhilarating—her Italian immigrant parents were less convinced, and by high school they dropped the bomb: No way.

 

Here I am at 4…. Ready to take on the world!

 

Here I am with my mom and my 3 sisters. 

“So my mom picked me up off the floor, basically, and said, ‘You love science and math and you’re really good at it,’” she says. Nester decided that if she couldn’t entertain people, she could at least help them, so she picked medicine. As a medical technologist for 17 years, she worked in a lab, analyzing blood, studying samples, and matching patients with donors.

But she never lost sight of her dream, and after QVC launched in 1986, her supreme fandom became a desire to actually work at the shopping network. Her third audition, during QVC’s America’s Host Search, proved the charm. Over time, fan support has helped make her one of the network’s most recognized faces.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what your education is, what your background is,” she says. “If you’re chasing what your heart tells you to chase, you’re going to win, and you’re going to do good.”

Me and my dad at my Penn State Graduation

 

 When I returned to Penn State to speak at Women’s Career Day this year.

Nester isn’t the only Penn Stater at QVC: Shawn Killinger ’95 Bus joined the channel as a program host in 2007 after a circuitous path that included stints as a TV reporter and anchor in New York and Florida, a senior producer and host for BabyFirstTV, and as a cast member on NBC’s The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.