I grew up in Centreville, Virginia, where I would take advantage of the proximity to Washington, D.C. and spend weekends in the city. I remember occasions when I would go into D.C. and there would be dozens of news reporters outside, broadcasting the breaking news that oftentimes was unfolding around me. As a young woman, it was these news reporters who had a significant impact on my life. I discovered how much the news and social media could not only influence, but change the course of a nation’s history.

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My younger years were also dedicated to Girl Scouts, through which I developed a passion for volunteering in my community.   One of the highlights of my community service was volunteering at the annual Girl Scout Day at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  In addition to helping young girls develop their interests in math and science, I had the opportunity to meet and interview astronauts. I learned how to ask pressing questions that were not easily answered. These experiences of my youth led me to pursue my dreams.

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In my sophomore year of college, I joined three different clubs to improve my writing and PR styles. I wrote for both Virginia Tech's Collegiate Times as well as the editorial HerCampus, both of which publish daily and weekly articles for Virginia Tech students. While at Virginia Tech, I also had the privilege of being on the Communications team for the Hybrid Electrical Vehicle Team, which is a four-year car competition sponsored by General Motors. During my time with these clubs, my articles were published for the first time. I also used my experiences in Girl Scouts to develop a program to teach young girls about STEM, which combined my interest in aerospace with writing. While I was with HEVT, I was responsible for monthly blog posts updating the competition progress as well as handling all platforms of social media. I created a content calendar and original content to increase the engagement of club supporters. It was through HEVT that I realized how much I enjoyed working with social media and seeing users’ reactions.

 

Feeling ambitious, I applied for a study abroad internship and found myself in Italy for the summer working for Positano News, a website that highlighted local news and cultural activities along the Amalfi Coast. There, I was in charge of interviewing business owners and locals about their experiences and writing articles for English-speaking tourists. I was also in charge of “finding news” as my boss liked to say and posting about it on social media so their readers would know. One of my more difficult projects was streamlining Positano News’s social media and creating a cohesive look for the company. I helped them create posts that tended to vary in content and were also appealing for media users to look at. They previously had low engagement on their posts so we collaborated to create a campaign that would ask users questions and encourage responses in the comments section.

 

After returning from Italy, I wanted to continue my work on writing and social media, and I joined the Communications Team for The Big Event at Virginia Tech. The Big Event is a student-led community service event that takes place on one day in the spring. Students are encouraged to volunteer their day to give back to homeowners in the New River Valley community. While on the Communications team, we worked to create blog posts each week and were also responsible for creating original social media content. Leading up to the event we gathered student and homeowner testimonials and pictures that could be used on each of their social media platforms. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 lockdown occurred before we were able to hold the event. It was our team that took the initiative to coordinate and inform homeowners and students alike that the event had been canceled for the spring. ​