Early in my college career, I became aware that, while I was not attending classes, I was shut in my room often and did not frequently speak with others in my major. To combat this, I joined the student newspaper as a staff writer and become swiftly acquainted with others as passionate about journalism as I was. Quickly promoted to section editor and taking on the position of copy editor, as well, I wrote 20+ articles and edited over 50 for the newspaper's weekly publication. Overall, working for the student newspaper not only helped me combat my social ineptitude but enabled me to gain on-hands experience as a journalist and become more familiar with the campus and nearby community as a whole.

While working for the university newspaper, I realized I did not have much experience conducting interviews as a result of my reluctance to reach out to others. In order to gain that experience, I found a story I was passionate about putting out and interviewed multiple sources in order to get the information I need. I soon realized I was becoming more comfortable interviewing others and pursued more of them in my stories going forward.