Previous Work

Stories to remember

Some of the work I’m the most proud of in my current catalog is my breaking news work. The first time I ever broke news was on April 18, 2022, when an Auburn student came on campus and hijacked a student organization’s table without permission to spark outrage on campus with a sign that read “Prove Me Wrong: No One Is Born Gay.” I just happened to be there when the event picked up traction, and though I was a culture writer at the time, I spontaneously worked to cover the event and promptly switched to The Crimson White’s news desk afterwards. I still get questions about this story to this day, some from investigative reporters that needed information.

My effort on the news beat ended up paying off eventually when I won my second award of my career for my work on the “Ye Is Right” story. On Jan. 26, 2023, chalk appeared around campus proclaiming “Ye Is Right,” in reference to Kanye West spouting antisemitism and Holocaust denial on the Internet around the time this happened. These all appeared the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day. I drove around campus and illegally parked in my places to document the chalk before the University silently washed it away, and did most of the reporting for this story from the UA Student Health Center waiting room, as I had to juggle breaking the news with taking care of my health. The news team won a College Media Association Pinnacle Award Honorable Mention for our work in October of 2023. A few days after the breaking news, I worked on a story about Jewish students’ reaction to the events, which shows the deeper, human side of the story the breaking story didn’t quite capture.

These all stick out to me as memorable because of the impact — I can’t begin to verbalize how many people told me “thank you.” They thanked me for my work, for my efforts in rectifying injustice, for listening to their experiences, for reporting on something that would have gone unknown otherwise, for caring enough to take the time to write about these things. These stories are some that epitomize what I want to do with a career in journalism — inform the public, hold those in power and those who do wrong accountable, and tell the stories that matter.

‘Ye Is Right’ chalkings appear on campus ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day

I’ve been extremely honored to win two awards during my burgeoning career. I’ve been recognized as a reporter who can handle breaking news with care, poignancy, incisiveness and efficiency and can write impactful features that, in the words of Rick Bragg, one of my mentors, “cut right to the heart.”

It’s a major award!

On April 7, 2023, I was awarded The University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences’ Outstanding Student in News Media award. The recipient is proposed by a professor and selected by a committee within the communications college, and this committee takes into account the entire communications college.

In October 2023, the 2022-23 news desk staff won a College Media Association Pinnacle Award Honorable Mention for the “Ye is Right” breaking news story. Pictured to the left of me is Maven Navarro, a fellow staff reporter during the 2022-23, and to my right is Ethan Henry, who also won an award for work done in the 2022-23 year.

Venture into the vault

I’ve got much more experience beyond those stories I linked above. Below are links to archives of the fruits of my most significant ventures into the journalism field so far in my career, complete with hard news reporting, longer features and breaking news.

I worked for The Crimson White most of my college career. I began as a culture contributor, worked my way up to news staff reporter, and then served as an assistant copy editor for my last year. As with any college paper, there were ups and downs, and learning to navigate them and lead our team bettered me as a journalist.

I worked for the Tuscaloosa Thread during the spring of 2023. I learned a lot of things in this position, most notably the nuances of a real newsroom. The writing experience of The Crimson White is great, but tangible real-world experience is invaluable.