There may be a ton of things I wish I had done differently in life but choosing to be a multimedia journalist at UF was by far one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Obviously it’s one of the better schools of journalism and communications in the country and the hands on experience that I’ve been able to get while studying here has been phenomenal.
From the very first classes I started taking until now, I’ve grown tremendously. I think I owe most credit to the outstanding professors, teaching assistants, news managers, and mentors in the college.
As my second to last semester is winding down I can only look back and be so grateful of all the opportunities that I’ve been given at UF. My experience thus far has been more than positive. I’ve learned more than just how to report and edit scripts and video. I’ve learned life lessons that I will take with me when I leave this beautiful college.
I’ve had some of the best of the best give me advice and tips on how to be a better journalist, how to conduct interviews, how to write a catchy script, and even how to cope with the stress while on a time crunch.
Some of the best times of my life have been spent inside the newsroom at the college of journalism and communications.
I’ve been able to learn what it would be like to work out in the real world, outside of college as a reporter, and that I think is the most helpful part of being a student in this college.
They give you the opportunity to find your own stories and pitch them in the morning meeting, then go out in the field and take care of business. We get to do different stories and meet different people every single day and then come back to the newsroom and put together a story that we get to then tell to people of all ages in over 50 small towns and cities across North Central Florida. If that isn’t exciting, I don’t know what is!
The fact that WUFT (UF News Station) puts together a live show every single day with nothing but students, I think says a lot about the brilliant people that study in our college and I am so thankful to be a part of it.
I think one of my greatest memories so far has been the time that the station allowed me to do a “live shot”, which is pretty awesome for a beginner like me. The rush of excitement and butterflies before you “go live” is really incomparable to any job I could ever imagine having. It’s one thing to be able to be live in the studio next to your anchors, but to be on scene and going live is a real adrenaline rush, (plus I’m pretty sure it’s good to have on your reel).
It’s hard to really compare one day from the other working as a reporter for WUFT because they were all a ton of fun. I thoroughly have enjoyed every moment and with one semester left I’m excited but also getting a little sad that I only have four months left at one of the greatest schools in the entire world, of course that’s my humble opinion. I’ve met so many people who share the same interest in being a reporter as I do and being able to work with such amazing and smart people has been a blessing.
I feel like I’ve grown so much and learned more than I could’ve ever imagined at UF and I will always be proud to have studied to be a multi-media journalist for WUFT and of course I’ll always be proud to be a Gator!