MY STORIES: 

• Syrian refugees being forced from home go through intensive resettlement process
• The Boys and Girls Clubs of America step up to help refugees
• Granite School District forms charter school to serve refugees and immigrants

MY BLOG:

Throughout the Fall semester, the students in Voices of Utah were to focus on the beat of refugees. Some students chose the angle of the process to become a refugee while others chose an angle such as refugee farmers. All of us had the opportunity to discover our own angle within the beat and were able to report on that angle.

Over the course of my student journalism career I discovered that although writing may be fascinating and fast-paced, it is not for me. Journalism takes zero mistakes, which means that my writing would have to be damn-near perfect. I’m not saying that one day it might not be perfect if I kept practicing, but I am saying I am choosing not to continue to practice it.

Something about me is that I am a firm believer in strengthening your strong points. Writing is not one of my strong points. With that said, one of my strong points is communicating with one another. This was the aspect of journalism that I found extremely enjoyable.

Being able to interview someone I never met before and hear what they have to say really encouraged me to want to know more. For example, after interviewing the principal of Utah International and hearing how passionate she was about all the cultures it made me excited to learn more about the school, which in the long run helped my reporting.

First, I would like to say that this class turned out to be nothing like I thought it was. When I enrolled in the class, I was under the impression that it was a discussion about the many voices of Utah and how they were expressed in such a conservative state. I did not know what a community engaged learning class was and I was not prepared to be in a journalism class. However, I think I ended up surprising myself with my writing.

The best part of this class was it required me to go outside my normal realm of thinking and my knowledge of Salt Lake City. As a result of my reporting this semester, I was able to learn about Granite School District, which helped me out even further with volunteer opportunities within the schools. I was also able to get a bigger picture of what it is I would want to do with my career, which is not journalism.

To conclude, Voices of Utah was an excellent experience for the outside world of school and how you need to act. Professor Mangun gave us multiple openings to reach out for a career path as well as set us up for success with our LinkedIn profile and Lindsey Kass.

ABOUT ME:

Katie is currently a student at the University of Utah studying strategic communication with a minor in business. She expects to graduate in May 2018.

Katie has been an active member of the Utah Alpha Pi Beta Phi Fraternity on her campus since 2014 and currently serves as the policy and standards chairman for the 2017-2018 academic school year. She was recently inaugurated into Order of Omega, which is an undergraduate inter-fraternal society recognizing mean and women who have attained a high standard of leadership.

She is the program director at The Little Gym of Salt Lake City where she takes part in training the incoming staff as well as helping the gym director in her duties.

Katie has great time management skills, is very organized and works every day on advancing her communication skills. She enjoys working in a social environment that allows her to work in a team.

Filed under: Blogs & Bios, Student-Journalists |