Quick bio:
Birthplace: Yuba City, CA
Birthdate: January 11, 1996 (20 years old)
Areas lived in while growing up: Yuba City, CA and Portola, CA
Education: Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts (high school); University of Southern California (currently attending)
Major: Broadcast and Digital Journalism, minoring in Sports Media Studies
Favorite sports teams and associations: Sacramento Kings, San Francisco Giants, San Francisco 49ers, San Jose Sharks, NASCAR, horse racing
Alternate career I'd pursue if I wasn't in journalism: Being a train driver
Why I chose to be a journalist:
Majoring in Broadcast and Digital Journalism was not a choice I made moments before I clicked the "Submit" button on my college application. I knew from a young age that I wanted to have a career in the sports journalism field. My family, plus my passions for the media and sports, were the main inspirations for making that choice.
Influences from my parents helped point me towards my career choice, mainly because my parents were definitely my biggest supporters growing up. My mother had worked many years in the media industry, including Sacramento's KCRA-TV news station. When I was in Boy Scouts, she passed her knowledge of media down to me when I was working on merit badges, including Cinematography and Photography. In addition, and my mother still does this today, she will not miss an opportunity to take pictures or record videos of family activities. My father had the bigger influence on my passion for sports. For many years, my father coached my brother and me in Little League Baseball. My father also was an equipment manager for various golf courses, so we often played golf for free as a way to spend family time. He also rode dirt bikes with us.
Of course, my family's influences wouldn't mean anything unless I took a liking to the things my parents liked. It turns out I loved both the media and sports. I watched NBC for news often and enjoyed it because I loved the concept of people actually being at the scene where a major story was happening, and I always wanted to know the latest updates. In terms of sports, I loved the competitiveness, strategy and athleticism involved to win games. In addition to Little League Baseball, I played basketball and soccer during my youth. I also began to root for the same professional teams as my extended family. The two sports that I ended up following the closest were basketball and NASCAR racing.
My passions for media and sports ultimately led me to pursue sports journalism. I enjoyed playing sports so much that I knew I wanted my career to be in the sports field. However, I knew my athletic ability in every sport I played would never be good enough to play professionally, so I decided to pursue sports journalism. Not only do sports journalists receive more access than the ordinary fan, but they often make appearances on television. Being a journalist could also satisfy my desire to learn the latest sports news. It was these perks of being a journalist that lured me to that portion of the sports world. I also found inspiration from Grant Napear and Jerry Reynolds, the television personalities for the Sacramento Kings. I enjoyed how Napear and Reynolds called games because they analyzed the game well, had an excellent laid-back chemistry and showed a lot of emotion when they saw the Kings make a buzzer-beater or crazy play.
While I knew I wanted to be a sports journalist before I was in high school, it wasn't until then that I got to start getting experience in the field. My first paid internship was with a local radio station writing and voicing PSA commercials. I also worked for a local baseball team, the Marysville Gold Sox, running its Twitter account. In addition, I practiced written journalism through writing general news stories for my high school paper and writing sports stories on another high school for a local newspaper. In my first two years at USC, I wrote sports stories for the Daily Trojan and helped with production for Trojan Vision shows. I also covered the 2014 Breeders' Cup World Championships (horse racing event) and conducted one-on-one interviews with motorsports champions Kevin Harvick and Tony Schumacher. These experiences were all in addition to my journalism classes, where I had to write and package several general news stories.
I know the career I'm going in is not the best-paying (at least not the first job or two), but my passions for media and sports that my family passed on to me will make my career enjoyable and I'll be happy. While most of my work has been print thus far, my focus is on sports video or multimedia. I believe sports stories are better told through visuals instead of words, plus it doesn't hurt to get paid to share your sports news and knowledge with a large television or team fan audience. For all these reasons, being a television sports reporter or a sports digital producer are the careers I will pursue following college.
Fun facts about me:-I am a proud Eagle Scout. My Eagle Project was building four wooden, park-style benches for a local school.
-I have been heavily involved in the Masonic youth organization of DeMolay for nearly the last decade. My strength in the organization has been memorizing ritual work and performing major parts in both competition and ceremonies. I was recently honored as a Chevalier, which is the highest honor an Active DeMolay can receive.
-I used to ride therapeutic horses to help with my autism. Now, I give back when I'm home from college by volunteering with a local therapeutic horse riding program.
-The first San Francisco Giants game I attended was June 25, 2014, the game where Tim Lincecum threw his second career no-hitter against the San Diego Padres.
-The first NASCAR race I attended was the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway. My favorite driver, Jeff Gordon, won the race.
-My family and I attended the Sacramento Kings game on November 15, 2013, when the fans broke the Guinness World Record for the loudest crowd roar at an indoor sports event.
-I often call my driver in my golf club set "Big Susie." Unfortunately, driving is probably the worst part of my golfing game.
-California Chrome is owned partly by Perry Martin, who happened to live in my hometown of Yuba City at one time.
A snapshot of my work:
Below is just a glimpse of my sports photography skills and people I've interviewed.
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Additionally, here are some video packages I have made:
I also have written many articles on sports, including horse racing, basketball, baseball, football, tennis, volleyball and auto racing. If you want to read my print work, see more of my photographs or video packages, or contact me, go here for more!