by Dinah Rogers, NOLA.com - CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Keynote speaker Anderson Cooper, center, a news anchor with CNN, falls lower into his chair as he pretends to hide while Tulane University President Scott Cowen reads a list of his accomplishments to graduates and their families gathered at Tulane University's graduation on Saturday, May 15, 2010 at the Louisiana Superdome. Cooper purposely slid down his chair specifically when Cowen told the crowd that Anderson once did modeling.

Daily Pennsylvanian - Philadelphia,PA,USA - You may know him best as the Silver Fox. Or as the host of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. But he prefers to be known simply as Anderson, a non-partisan news anchor who considers himself privileged to have his job - a job he did not know that he would want upon his 1989 graduation from Yale as a political science major.

For most of his life, Anderson had a keen interest in news. During his SPEC fall speaker keynote address on Saturday, he explained to a packed Irvine Auditorium that he decided to begin his career in journalism by "traveling to

USA Weekend - USA - Roving reporter, world traveler, hipster, jokester, anchorman, rich kid, loner, geek -- CNN's Anderson Cooper is a Renaissance man for a digital age. Cooper, a three-time Emmy winner, stands up to politicians, stares down weather catastrophes, challenges the mighty, empathizes with the afflicted and collapses into laughter on live TV. The 41-year-old shows various colors, including famous shades of gray.

Our time with Cooper began in ABC's studios in New York City. He was there once again substituting for Regis Philbin and co-hosting "Live With Regis and Kelly," the breezy syndicated talk show. During "Live," Cooper showcases a lighter side of

Rocky Mountain News - Denver,CO,USA - Anderson Cooper might rightly be called the face of CNN.

Since his breakout performance covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (he famously berated officials for the devastation), Cooper has seemingly been everywhere: covering disasters, helming the well-received eco-series Planet in Peril and, of course, hosting his own nightly news show, Anderson Cooper 360.

This week, Cooper anchored CNN's prime-time coverage of the Democratic National Convention. We caught up with him at the CNN Grill on the Pepsi Center grounds.

* I understand you interned for the CIA when you were in college.

I had many different summer jobs when I was in

Springdale Morning News - Springdale, AR, USA - Anderson Cooper never wanted to be a news anchor.

"It's not anything I ever actually set out to become. It's actually something I used to make fun of," Cooper said. "I grew up watching Guy Smiley on Sesame Street and Kent Brockman on the Simpsons. That was sort of my idea of what an anchor was."

The host of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" didn't know what he wanted to do after graduating from Yale, but a high school trip through Africa had shown him the world outside the United States.

"I had a liberal arts degree, which means I had no actual skill,"

Arkansas Traveler (subscription) - Fayetteville, AR, USA - He has traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan since the beginning of the wars and has broadcast from New Orleans every few weeks since his month-long report from the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina.

However, Anderson Cooper doesn't get tired of doing the same story, even months after reporting it.

"I don't get bored," Cooper said. "There is something always different, there is always new things happening with stories."

For the last three months, he has been following the U.S. elections nonstop, but even this doesn't grow tiring, he said.

"It's fascinating. The fact that all people who are illegibly experts have no idea what

TransWorldNews (press release) - Monroe, GA, USA - Angelina Jolie will be appearing as a guest on Anderson Cooper 360° on Wednesday to discuss the world’s refugee crisis as well as human rights atrocities that have largely gone unnoticed.

In the interview with Cooper the recently elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations discusses the point in her life in which she felt compelled to take notice of the refugee plight. Jolie revealed that a trip to a refugee camp in Sierra Leone and Tanzania introduced her to the “real horrors in the world” and described a level of cruelty that she “did not know existed.”

Jolie tells Cooper

Campaigns & Elections (press release) - USA - CNN and YouTube are teaming up to host the first-ever voter-generated presidential debate.  For the first time in presidential debate history, the Democratic debate in Charleston, SC will feature video questions submitted to YouTube which will be broadcast and answered by the candidates on CNN.  CNN's Anderson Cooper will moderate the two-hour debate and pose follow-up questions.

The debate will be at the Citadel in Charleston, SC, on Monday, July 23 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm (ET) and will air live on CNN.

Starting today, YouTube users will be able to submit their questions at www.youtube.com/debates.

CNN will produce the televised event