When I entered COM as a freshman, I wanted to live, breathe, and die on the journalism hill. With my sights set on international correspondence, I wanted to become a digital journalist covering the world’s stories. I had a passion rushing through my veins and a plan set in my heart.
After my experiences with The Daily Free Press, BUTV10, and WBUR, I found so many amazing mentors and upperclassmen who were driven, talented, and inspiring. If you want to study journalism, COM is definitely the place to be. I fell in love with covering stories around Boston.
Writing for the Freep, I felt like a professional from day one, running around with a notebook and a lot to learn. With BUTV10, I started producing the daily news show The Wire in my spring semester, and it all started to become real.
There’s a certain energy in COM. Sure, many of us run on little sleep and lots of coffee, but there’s a passion within the community. There’s this unsaid energy that is shared within your peers and your mentors. It’s something you can’t describe until you’re there.
At the end of freshman year, with international correspondence in mind, I started planning my dual-degree in international relations. With an IR degree, I had the chance to experience the sort of deep background I wanted to bring to the news desk. In all my classes, I looked at the course objectives through the lens of a journalist. Remaining impartial but observant – thinking about how social sciences and communications can interact.
Over the course of three years, including a semester in London and a summer in DC, I realized an evolution in my interests. At first it was hard letting go of my love for journalism. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it. But, through my internship experiences and international relations courses, I noticed that there were other avenues I had not discovered yet.
As I continued to grow through my time at BU, as a person, as a student, and into a semi-adult, I realized that I had to come to terms with the fact that my dreams and aspirations evolved as well. Now, I would love to merge my two interests in IR and journalism.
With the technical toolkit from COM and the academic background from Pardee, I want to use the power of narrative and storytelling to build bridges across borders. I’m not quite sure where it will lead me, but I definitely am excited.
