Then I took a journalism course. One of the class assignments was to write a story for NSC’s student newspaper, The Scorpion’s Tale. I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to write about, until I started thinking about the upcoming presidential inauguration. So many young people were involved in the presidential campaign; why not follow that up and see if they were staying involved now that the campaign was over and Barack Obama was about to become president?

So I did some interviews and found out that people were just as excited about the inauguration as they’d been about the election. There was a lot going on, both on campus and in Washington, so I wrote about the various events and how NSC students stayed involved.

It was my first effort for the Scorpion. Imagine my surprise when I picked up the paper and saw my story on the front page! I was so proud, and so excited to see my name in print. I knew that in journalism I had found my passion.

I don’t think I could have had this experience at another school. There were only eight or nine students in my journalism class, so the professor was able to give individual attention and specific feedback to each student. And at many bigger schools, you need junior or senior standing to write for the student paper; at Nevada State, I was on the front page my first time out.