As a graduate student in Specialized Journalism, I have built USC Annenberg Media’s photo desk from a two-person sports operation to a full-fledged media machine. I now have 25+ weekly contributors and three junior editors in Los Angeles's largest newsroom. I have since built out a page on Annenberg Media’s website for photos and an Instagram page highlighting the desk’s work. I also won the 2021 L.A. Press Club award for Best Breaking News Photo in the Student category, was named the 2022 PPAGLA Student Photographer of the Year, and placed behind two LA Times photojournalists in Best News Photo Story in the 2022 L.A. Press Club awards.

 

For the last two years, I have been the designated student photographer for USC Athletics, covering every single sport at USC from women’s rowing at the port of Los Angeles to the men's and women’s Water Polo national championships. This role has brought me behind the scenes in the weight room and Lincoln Riley’s press conferences. Uploading live photos from football, soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball games has given me an understanding of what the expectations are like at elite sports programs.

 

Spot news and conservation storytelling remain my true passion. I have covered civil unrest after the Super Bowl 56 win, structure fires in Los Angeles, Olympic swimmer profiles, and Ukrainian migrant stories. I spent this past summer embedded on Catalina Island, working for the USC Wrigley Marine Science Center to tell science and conservation stories. This fall I have continued to chase wildfires in Southern California and crime in Los Angeles for my thesis. I will graduate from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism this spring and look forward to chasing stories full-time.