After being a part of a community college newspaper and a local newspaper, it’s time for me to advance my skills at The News. I am very excited to meet and work with new people, while learning from my fellow peers and advancing my skills in journalism.

Since graduating high school, I have switched my major twice. I have never been certain about what exactly I wanted to pursue in my future. However, my love for writing, literature and art has always been very prevalent.

From a very young age, my mother would always comment about how I would grow up to be a journalist, to which I ignored. Journalism was never a path I planned to pursue, until I attended Lake Land College and joined their news team on a whim, to become their page designer.

I instantly fell in love with their student publication and journalism in general. I later went on to become the Editor-in-Chief at their publication and won first place in the News Story category at the Illinois Community College Journalism Conference.

It was not until two weeks before graduating Lake Land College that I came to the realization that I needed to pursue a career in Journalism. Although I am still unsure of my end goal in the field, I have faith that my journalistic journey will lead me to where I am meant to be.

I spent my summer interning at a local community newspaper. While designing their newspaper and reporting, I had the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge from those willing to share their journey in journalism with me. I was able to report on beautiful places and meet wonderful people.

I am beyond grateful for all those I have met that helped me along my journey. Without them, I would have never realized that I belong in journalism.

I hope my experience at The News is just as positive, if not more, than all my other experiences in journalism thus far. I hope to produce and edit quality news articles for the students, faculty and staff at Eastern.

Although the switch to The News may take me some time to adapt to, I am thrilled to see what experiences are brought to me throughout my next two years here.

I can’t wait to look back at this exact article after graduating Eastern, and seeing how my skills have progressed and noticing how my writing styles have changed throughout the years.

Audra Gullquist can be reached at agullquist@eiu.edu or 217-581-2812.