Bijan Hosseini was seated in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport—holding a one-way ticket to Abu Dhabi—when excitement and uncertainty brought him to tears.

The University of Oklahoma alumnus was leaving his first job, a nearly three-year post at CNN’s Atlanta hub, and headed to the United Arab Emirates capital to work for CNN’s global features team. He was gaining a lifetime opportunity but also saying goodbye to longtime friends. 

“People asked me, ‘Why would you leave home to go to a place where you don’t know anybody?’ ” Hosseini says. “I was open to learning and adapting. That has made a huge difference. It sets you up for success.”

Not only did that 2018 move to Abu Dhabi lead to Hosseini—the son of an Iranian immigrant—being able to share stories of people in the Middle East, but he also met his wife, Alisha Rasul. Today, Hosseini is working in Doha, Qatar, where he is senior producer with CNN Global Productions and co-host of “CNN Creators,” a weekly live show airing in more than 200 countries and territories around the world through CNN International. 

When combat between Iran, Israel and their respective allies broke out in February, Hosseini suddenly found himself in the role of war correspondent, reporting live to millions of television and online viewers as missiles intercepted by Qatar’s Ministry of Defense exploded overhead.

“We’d watched this conflict build for months, so it was always in the back of our minds,” he says. “We were ready to go. In that moment, your head space immediately shifts to, ‘I have a job to do. Let me put my head down and do it to the best of my ability.’ 

“That type of coverage is woven into CNN’s DNA,” Hosseini adds. “The days were long and exhausting, but it’s always a privilege to inform, bear witness and give a voice to those impacted.”

Hosseini began following news early. “Conflicts are the stories I gravitated toward watching on CNN as a child,” he shares.

While growing up in Tulsa, Hosseini’s exposure to hard news included Anderson Cooper’s CNN coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the 2005 storm’s aftermath throughout the American South. When it came time for college, Hosseini considered out-of-state options but realized that OU had all the resources in place he needed to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. That included faculty members like Mike Boettcher, OU’s Nicole and Evan H. Katz Endowed Professor of Journalism, who performed the first live satellite report for CNN in 1980 before becoming chief correspondent for the network’s terrorism investigation unit.

“Being able to learn from someone like Mike was as close as you could get to real-world experience,” Hosseini says. “Hearing his stories and learning from him … I don’t know if that’s an education people can get at other universities.”

His education also included working at OU Nightly, the training ground where Hosseini and his peers produced live, half-hour news broadcasts for television and social media. “You learned how to edit stories, pitch a story and be a news anchor, skills I’m still using every day,” he says.

During Hosseini’s junior year, he met Nick Valencia, who worked at CNN for nearly two decades as an Atlanta-based correspondent.

Inspired, Hosseini asked if they could keep in touch. He thought it unlikely he would hear from the veteran journalist. “Thirty minutes later, Nick sends me a text that says, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing. People like you make it,’ On occasion, he would message me and ask how school was going.”

By December 2015, Hosseini had practical news experience, a double OU degree in broadcast journalism and international security studies, and a job offer from a Tulsa news station. Before his contract could be finalized, the station’s news director left and his hiring was frozen. “While waiting, I applied for a job at CNN’s international desk in Atlanta,” he says.

Five days after his interview, CNN offered Hosseini a job. He never looked back.

He started as a news desk researcher. Hosseini’s role quickly grew to producing half-hour network feature programs and social video series—including “Quest’s World of Wonder,” “Decoded” and “Destination.”

Hosseini says he later asked Valencia, “Why invest so much in me, based on a five-minute conversation?” 

He pauses when recalling the response.    

“ ‘This is the only way journalism works,’ ” Valencia told him. “ ‘I invest in you, and you’ll do the same for others later in your career.’ ”

It’s a lesson not lost on Hosseini, one that reminds him of the hard work his father put into moving to a country where he didn’t know the language. “My parents have been nothing but supportive,” Hosseini adds. “I can imagine hearing me say that I was moving back to the Middle East was not the easiest thing for them.”

Hosseini has embraced opportunities to tell stories of people like his own family and those across many walks of life, both through breaking news and feature storytelling.

“The older I’ve gotten, I find a lot of joy in those feature stories,” Hosseini says. “Some people say ‘pick a niche,’ but for me, it’s both hard news and features. That is what I love to do.”

Sometimes, grabbing the next opportunity comes with tears of excitement and uncertainty. But Hosseini knows the results are worth it. “The times I have put myself in uncomfortable or uncertain situations are when I grow the most,” he says. 

Brian Hudgins is a freelance writer living in Lafayette, La.