Mavis Baah - Hampton Short Course 2009

Click on photo to enlarge or downloadI get bored easily. And journalism is the one thing that satisfies my urge to find something new, something different.

I'm a senior broadcast journalism major, marketing minor, with a lot of print experience. I know how to shoot and edit video. I can write a short-and-sweet broadcast story. I can write a Web story - and update it constantly. And I know what goes into a good lede and how to create an interesting nut graf.

These varied experiences make me love journalism. It was journalism that led me from my hometown of Triangle, Va., to the Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind., the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., and Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Journalism allowed me to obtain the news director's position at Hampton University's campus radio station, WHOV 88.1-FM, two years in a row. Journalism gave me a chance to work with the country's top editors as an intern for the American Society of Newspaper Editors student newspaper.

Journalism proved both satisfying and motivating when I won the university's Lottie S. Knight award for the highest-ranking female in my sophomore class. Journalism guided me to like-minded peers and knowledgeable mentors as a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. This summer, I'm going to follow journalism to New York (they say if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere) as an intern for Essence magazine. And I can't forget that it was faithful journalism that guided me to the Scripps Howard Foundation Short Course where I hope to learn more about this crazy but cool business.

I guess you could say I'm stickin' with this journalism thing.

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