Growing up the only child of two restaurant managers in Atlanta, Georgia, we’d watch Robin Meade on Head Line News as we got ready in the morning. I always enjoyed asking my parents what the stories really meant, and regurgitating their opinions later at school that day. At that age I loved how serious the news appeared, and how I could be more serious for knowing it. People looked at the news with respect -a respect I never saw extended to things like Cartoon Network. As I grew older and found myself with an iPhone in my pocket, laptop in my backpack, and TV in my room. I appreciated the news even more. Often, it felt like the only thing that wasn’t trying to solicit or sedate me. But, somewhere along the way that reputation seemed to splinter. All of a sudden truth became a fantastical thought, and you didn’t hear much about news without the word “fake” in front of it. My once dignified journalistic aspirations, now looked delirious. But it was too late. I had fallen in love with a conviction, and was left with no choice but to stand on it.

As I find my place in the mass media landscape I hope to be part of a new generation of journalist professionals. One determined to uphold a standard of ethical reporting that has given the industry the revered “fourth estate” title. As I work in front and behind the camera I aim to tell relevant and honest stories that help communities understand and appreciate one another.

“We can always tell multiple stories about ourselves, and none of them is the truth.”

Currently studying journalism at Emerson College