So why does Singh employ the Trinidadian pronunciation of her name? Singh's parents may have met in New York City, and her name may be purely Hindu, but there's a lot more to her than what appears on the surface. With a Puerto Rican mother and a Trinidadian-Indian father (her great-grandparents came from India to Trinidad), Singh can dip into a rich cultural fondue that consists of everything from salsa to curry.

And Singh has learned much from her biracial heritage: "Being biracial gives me a broader perspective, a broader understanding of the need to present yourself as an individual, not necessarily as part of one ethnic group or another. Being biracial helps me to draw on an understanding of the needs of Latinos—the passion they have for life, the passion they have for culture, spiritual passion." The Indian side of her heritage has taught her to value family. As for the Trinidadian side, Singh says, "We don't take things as seriously as other folks."

Singh's mixed ethnic background prompted her interest in social welfare and Latin-American issues. She recently finished a documentary on the AIDS crisis in Haiti, interviewing women affected by the crisis.

Singh, who majored in broadcast journalism and Latin American studies at Syracuse, always knew she wanted to be a broadcaster. She "stumbled upon public radio" at Syracuse, and fell in love because, she says, it offers greater flexibility, the ability to do in-depth reporting and greater job stability. In fact, after Singh had made her name in public broadcasting, commercial stations began to sit up and take notice. "But by that time I was so in love with public broadcasting that I didn't want to make the move."

And when you talk to her, that love shines through. "There's something magical about sound. It's like closing your eyes and daydreaming. That's what public radio does. It transports you to that dreamy state and you're forced to use your own mind. It's a dream job for any journalist who wants to be able to stretch their wings," she says. And even though the work can be demanding, the scope of news she is able to cover is another benefit of working for NPR. "As an anchor it's great for me, because I love spot reporting, I love being on special projects, I love giving the news. The best [thing] I've done is documentaries. [They've] taken to me to central America and Haiti—very lengthy, time-consuming projects," she says. It's difficult for listeners to imagine how much work can go into a simple 10-minute radio story. "For every minute [listeners hear on the radio], you're putting in a few hours because of all the tape-gathering, the writing, the rewriting and more rewriting. There's several hours of work that goes into every minute you hear on the air."

But the work is something that Singh seems to need. She wants to focus next on AIDS prevention and do more projects related to India. "I love what I do. I'm definitely lucky. I just want to be able to add to it. I want to be a voice that's recognized on other issues. Real issues, real pain ... I want to be a part of educating people. I want to be part of an endeavor that isn't sugar-coated. That's the kind of project I'm pursuing right now."

We talked with Singh to find out just what it takes to get into public broadcasting.

How did you break in to the business?
I had seven interviews lined up right before graduation, didn't get any of the jobs and was thoroughly depressed about it. So I started freelancing and did some work for Voice of America and NPR. Every summer, I was interning somewhere ... I would come home and break open the phone book, and find out if they [radio stations] needed free labor. Most of them snapped me up because I knew what I was doing and it was free. Throughout those years, I developed my resume through internships. So by the time I was freelancing, I was pretty much up and running. I knew what I was doing.

What's involved in freelance work?
Basically, you have to prove what you can do. You come up with a story idea. You have to have your own equipment and have a pretty good idea of the interviews you know you can get. You can do the story, gather the tape, write up the script and submit to editors. Or you can have an outline in mind, know who your interviews are and pitch to an editor and hope they commission it. When you do it once, you have to keep pitching over and over again and develop a track record. Once you've developed a rapport you have to keep it that way. Reputations are really easy to crumble. You should never mess with ethics. I'm the kind of person who will go to an event, and if they're providing [free] coffee, I won't take it. I won't partake in anything that's given for free by the group I'm covering. That's an extreme, I want to emphasize. [But] if they're selling the coffee, I'll buy the coffee.

What do you like best about newscasting?
[The best] is the opportunity to connect with a stranger. The most gratifying thing I've ever experienced in journalism is being invited by somebody to share in what may be the most uncomfortable, the most sad, the most tragic of circumstances ... And they don't know you, but they're opening up and sharing something so personal. I take away from that a very large sense of responsibility to do right by them. To represent them in the most accurate way possible. I don't model it into the kind of story I'd like to tell. I do right by them because confidences are extremely important.

What advice can you offer to aspiring broadcasters?
The number one advice is [to] get as much experience as possible. If you're in college, and you're serious about broadcasting, know [that] you have to spend your summers in an internship or work on the air somewhere. It used to be true that if you want to go into a big market, you leave the big market for a small market, make your mistakes, and then go back into the big market as a professional. Aspiring broadcasters should do that ... You have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. People turn up their noses at people who don't work hard. The best thing is to have the respect of your colleagues. A pretty face and a pretty nice voice will only get you so far. If you don't think, analyze and assess and listen to people who have been there 20 years, it'll eventually come back and bite you in the butt.

Has being a woman or a minority hurt or helped you in the broadcasting field?
It is always hard to tell. In this business you never really know what people think of you—all you can do is gauge how people receive you. If your listenership grows, you're doing a good job. I've been fortunate enough that I've been able to benefit from the sacrifices from other women who really had to blaze the trail for younger broadcasters. And generally, newsrooms do not represent the ethnic makeup and viewership of our listenership. There's still a lack of ethnic minority representation. It's definitely improved over the last 10 years, but it's still very much lacking and it's very surprising. I don't think it's held me back; if anything, it's helped me. I think there's a definite gap, an unfair gap, in salary, in ethnic representation. There's still a wide gap between what men and women earn and what Caucasians and non-Caucasians earn in terms of salaries and promotions. That's something that's seriously needs to be addressed. But personally for me it's been a help.

Describe a typical workweek or workday.
I get up around five or six in the morning, go on the Internet, see what news is happening. Then I turn on NPR and see what the morning anchors are talking about so I know what kinds of stories I need to stay on top of when I go in. By eight I'll head out of the house and get into work, [a] couple of hours before my first newscast. We have to look at the wires, and we have to double-source everything: typically, either two wires, or one wire and one of our own reporters. And that takes time.

One of the most complicated stories is about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. When you're dealing with an issue as complicated as that, each wire may be reporting on the same kind of case but have different facts. One story will say six people killed; another will say eight people killed. The only thing you know is that it was in Gaza. So you have to find the common ground between sources. So we take two hours or so to read in, find common ground in stories, make some phone calls as well. And then we go in and then it's time to go on the air. Our copy is edited ands typically it's crazy in the newsroom—inevitably something will change five minutes before we go on the air and the whole lineup changes. You have to be ready for anything.