MY STORY
Growing up, I had developed a deep fascination with the way the world worked, and why. My interest in philosophy and economics, especially weird given my young age, had soon developed into a passion for politics, which lead me to The Southwest Shadow.
I always strive to develop my voice and analysis, along with combining my personal narratives with the reality of the world to paint a picture for our audience. I view it as my responsibility to shape the next generation's understanding of the world through fact-based analysis and reporting.
As a person born into poverty to two working-class immigrants, I've long been extremely fascinated by policies designed to make the economy fairer and more equitable. I've studied deeply into recent research regarding childhood education and assistance to low-income families and young children, studying both their fiscal impacts, and the human impact of helping more parents afford food for their children. This familiarity in the policy domain helped me as a research assistant at the UBI Center, a think tank where I primarily worked on informing the public on cash transfers to families. My work in this field also lead to me being published in The Nevada Independent on the Biden child tax credit.
During the past three years, I’ve received several awards for my columns and news stories. I've won first place in a National Federation of Press Women opinion writing contest, first place in a JEA/NSPA editorial contest, first place in a Youth Journalism International contest for team opinion writing, and several others. I have felt enormous honor being granted awards for my work as both a writer and an editor. It also feels good to know that the work that I’m doing on the Shadow has helped significantly in regard to bolstering the our status as one of the most acclaimed high school newspapers in the country.
It hasn’t always been easy. Balancing work on the newspaper with schoolwork has been extremely difficult, especially with my mother losing her job at the onset of the pandemic and my immunosuppressed father continuing to work. However, I continued to do it, not because it was easy, but because I felt it was my responsibility as a journalist to continue doing the important work of reporting and writing for our audience.
One of the honors I’m most proud of is interviewing important people involved in Clark County government, including School Board Trustees. I know it’s easy to ignore the work that we do at The Southwest Shadow as trivial, unimportant or non-noteworthy, so showing that we are a serious website with a work ethic that matches our craving for truth was deeply rewarding. It was especially rewarding interviewing these people about crucial issues for Nevada families, including increased food aid for poor and working-class families during one of the worst economic collapses in modern American history.
The journalistic success I’ve seen here has shaped pretty much every aspect of my life. The edits I’ve received have made me a better writer, for one. Also, the editing process, while often slow, long and arduous, has made me more responsible with work in other realms of my life, as I better understand the importance of responsibility in the workforce. Most importantly, working with my fellow writers and artists has made me truly appreciate the value in deeply respecting the fellow people you work with, as I wouldn’t enjoy being a journalist nearly as much without my fellow staff members.
I haven't always done perfectly. Sometimes I can miss the forest for the trees, and get up in small details. But as a whole, I always make it a priority to ensure any project, whether it's mine or a person's I am editing, is as high-quality as possible. And that's worth all the journalism awards in the world.
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If you're interested in hearing more about my background, you can read my college essay here.
