MY STORIES:

• Chili Beak, adding some spice to the community
• Body Buddies, a Salt Lake City fitness company, changes lives
• Food trucks serving up a crowd in Salt Lake City

MY BLOG:

I’m awkward, and I embrace it. The thought of having to interview random local businesses and create stories out of them was not at all a skill that I thought I would have. I always wanted to go into the field of broadcast journalism and spend more time in front of the camera. However, as I began to work within the local business beat, I found that this was a comfort zone for myself. I love hearing people’s success stories, so this was the perfect opportunity to delve deeper into figuring out what makes these small businesses successful.

The research that I had to put into gathering all of the information to create an ethical story was a challenge. But it was worth the constant effort to put together a strong storyline. Although I may have felt a little uncomfortable interviewing someone I had never met before, I felt that I was able to create a new camaraderie with these people. As a reporter you are there to get to know the person on a personal level so that you can make your story as reliable as possible, and not just spit out facts.

My favorite part about each of my pieces was the quotes that I took directly from the interview with the owner of the featured business. It made the piece much more personable, which appeals to the reader. Reporting on this community made me much more aware of the struggles that people have to go through when running a small business, whether that be marketing or money related. It was amazing to hear that the majority of the owners of the small businesses originally had no intentions of running a small business. However, they created their business through things that they were passionate about, whether that be food or fitness.

Photo taken by S.McClure Photography

I am passionate about the success of social media. Seeing how each of these businesses successfully implemented social media into promotion and marketing showed how social media create a multitude of new opportunities for businesses. This beat certainly helped my confidence skills in becoming a journalist and a reporter.

ABOUT ME:

I never imagined myself as pursuing the field of journalism. In fact, I came to the University of Utah from Philadelphia in hopes of getting a degree in atmospheric sciences. As an adolescent, you would find me spending my Saturday mornings sitting on the couch watching The Weather Channel as opposed to Saturday morning cartoons. However, my dreams and aspirations to become a meteorologist were crushed when I was faced with the difficulties of calculus and differential equations. By no means was I a math person. But there was one talent that I did have, and that was video production and journalism. I was ready to pursue my newly designated career path, and achieve a BS in Communication at the University of Utah.

In summer of 2014, I spent five weeks trekking through the Himalayan Mountains with 11 other students from the University of Utah, producing a documentary for the organization Nepal SEEDS. This organization constructs environmentally sustainable energy sources for remote villages along the Himalayan foothills. Following their journey, and interviewing a large variety of people, was a turning point in sparking my interest in video production and journalism.

I recently was one of the cast members on the MTV reality show, “Virgin Territory,” where I was able to experience the production process firsthand. I found being around the production crew and seeing how the show was put together to be more enjoyable than being a cast member on the show. It allowed me to really see that this was the field that I could see myself pursuing.

When not in the classroom, you can find me hiking and mountain biking on all of the trails that are available right in our backyard here in Salt Lake City. I am also the president of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at the University of Utah, building better men with the values of culture, harmony and friendship.

I hope to one day work for a major media company or news station working with a field production crew. I would like to see the work I helped produce come to life on the television screen for viewers to enjoy.

Filed under: Blogs & Bios, Student-Journalists |