TCU alumnus Bob Schieffer, host of CBS’s “Face The Nation,” paid a visit to the journalism school Thursday, offering students a chance to learn from a member of the Broadcasting/Cable Hall of Fame.Schieffer shared his personal experiences with several journalism classes and gave students a chance to ask any questions they might have.

Dylan Taylor-Smith, junior advertising/public relations major, was among those who jumped at the opportunity.

“It’s interesting to hear the perspective of someone who has so much experience,” Taylor-Smith said. “I loved his responses to everything and how well-spoken he was. It was an honor to have him come visit us.”

While at CBS News, Schieffer has served as chief Washington correspondent since 1982. He continues to report for CBS after stepping down from his post as anchor of the Evening News on Aug. 31, 2006.

In 2004, he served as a moderator for the third presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry.

“The presidential debate I moderated was one of the most interesting topics I covered,” Schieffer said. “People always ask me if I get nervous on TV, and I usually don’t, but, on that night, for the first time in 30 years, I had butterflies. When the red light went on, though, I had a chance to get focused, and they went away.”

Schieffer is one of the only journalists to have covered all four major beats in the nation’s capital: the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and Capitol Hill, according to the CBS Web site.

Schieffer said he has interviewed every U.S. president since Richard Nixon.

“My favorite interview has always been the president,” Schieffer said. “Regardless of political party, it has always been fun to interview whoever happens to be the president.”

He began reporting on the police beat for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after graduating in 1959 from TCU. He said he considered the experience a great way to prepare for a job not only as a reporter but in any line of work.

“It’s great preparation for a job because you’re usually walking in on the worst moment of somebody’s life,” Schieffer said. “If you can work under those conditions, you can work under anything.”

He said some of his most memorable moments as a reporter include being able to cover the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and having the opportunity to become the first reporter from a Texas newspaper to report on location during the Vietnam War.

Schieffer told journalism students if they continue to work at something they have a passion for they will be successful in life.

If you do what you like to do, you will have success,” he said. “The harder you work and the harder you try, the luckier you will be.