From a second grader telling his class the weather, to a professional meteorologist speaking to hundreds of people daily, Clayton Stiver has come a long way. He is currently one of the weathermen for NBC29 and has worked there for seven years. “I work with an awesome group of people,” Stiver told Elizabeth Pellicane’s Mass Media and David Small’s Television Production classes on Nov. 7.

Stiver is from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where he had an early start to his weather career in second grade. Every day he came to class with a new weather forecast for his class, earning the nickname “AccuStiver.” After high school, Stiver went to Penn State where he got a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism. He was a member of the Blue Band and is still a big fan of the Nittany Lions football team, so it was perfect that Christian Hackenberg’s brother Brandon was in Mrs. Pellicane’s class that day.

After Penn State, Stiver went to Mississippi State University where he earned a Bachelor of Sciences Degree in Geosciences. He followed that up with an internship at NBC10 in Philadelphia where he was mentored by Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz. Eventually he worked his way into the NBC29 family and was hired in October of 2006. “You have to have a lot of patience,” Stiver said as he described how to land a job in the broadcast weather business. When asked about the pros and cons of his job, Stiver said that his least favorite part was “definitely the make-up.”  However, he said that his favorite part of the job is being able to be on TV. The hardest part, he said, is knowing that “you won’t nail [the weather forecast] 100% of the time.”

Stiver’s favorite weather to report on is snow, and he says that he tries to get out as much as possible and report the weather outside as opposed to in the studio. When he isn’t working, Stiver also enjoys skiing, and is looking forward to raising a “little skier” when he and his wife welcome their first child in a few months.

Mrs. Pellicane and Mr. Small’s classes both enjoyed the visit and learned many things. “It was cool meeting a local celebrity,” said freshman Taylor Haislip. Mrs. Pellicane’s class has also had visits from School Resource Officer Tim Shiflett, FCHS College Adviser Fiona Charles, and ESPN producer and Fluvanna alumni Steve Melton. The class hopes to get a couple of more visits in before the semester finishes.