Rachel Agana »

Originally posted in UC Davis Student Affairs Blog | I Live UCD.

I woke up this morning thinking, “It’s a brand new day, the sun is shining and I’M ALIVE!” just like my Snoopy tee said. I figured out in my sleep what to write my query letter draft on for journalism class and was in an all around loving life mood. Now I end the night with more promise for the future and a goal in mind. The second habit of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (I read the teen version growing up) is Begin with the End in Mind. I have just received a godsend. Let me back up a bit.

Tonight the lovely Pamela Wu graced AggieTV with her presence as a guest speaker to talk about her path into journalism and life as a news reporter and anchor. Starting from her transition to a Rhetoric and Communication major from Environmental Science here at UC Davis, to interning and being hired as a production assistant to finally getting air time as a reporter and eventually a news anchor: she covered it all. She gave us the truth, as any real reporter would do, from the competitiveness of submitting demo reels, long and odd hours, down to salary or lack there of. We went into the randomness of hiring reporters based on gender, ethnicity and youth. She also explained the downsizing of the business and how more reporters are turning into one-man-bands, filming, writing and editing themselves.

Erika asked about how do you prevent yourself from falling into a daily grind and remain inspired. Even if you are doing something you love, if you do it for a certain amount of time there will be days where it is like, “It’s tax day again?” “You’re going to make me go up that mountain and talk about the snow again?” When it comes down to it reporting is not about you, it’s about the viewer. The goal of a reporter is to have the viewer think even if for a brief moment, “Oh, I didn’t know that!” Going into journalism you do not do it for the money but to be storytellers. She also expressed her love of the field and being able to cover a wide variety of stories including traveling across the country. I want to tell stories.

(Note to Self: Take photos always! It would have been great to photograph the meeting but I was very engrossed in absorbing all her advice)

When I got back home I looked over the handout she made of useful websites for young broadcast journalists and began looking at the National Press Photographer Association’s site. Can’t wait to really pour over the site for inspiration and information especially since tomorrow I’ll be putting together my first audio slideshow.

I remembered she briefly mentioned that the Sacramento Bee has paid summer internships if we were interested in print and so I googled it. Good ole google. To my delight my first click was to the pdf of the application to the Bee’s internship partnered with the Asian American Journalist Association which I remember hearing she was the President of the Sacramento chapter. This is my godsend. It is the PERFECT opportunity and exact light at the end of tunnel to motivate myself even more to do the best in everything I’m working on right now. The application requires 5-7 pieces of work and I’m currently working on 3 articles for my journalism class, 1 audio slideshow on our Tai Chi class for University Communications, photos from the tattoo story for UComm and will be filming and editing a story for AggieTV on the Emotions: Electronic Dance Party. It feels like the perfect fit. It’s also PAID and local! I’ll worry about urging my parents on getting our truck fixed so I could have a car up here after I get it.

Deadline in exactly one month:  March 19th

Internship awarded two weeks later: April 1st

Wish me luck! Ready, set, GO!

{Special thanks to Nicki Sun for organizing Pamela to come speak! Always looking out for us}