Getting Started

My production journey began in high school. I transferred to a new school during my sophomore year and wanted to take one of my mom's classes to feel more comfortable. She ran our school newspaper where I started as a reporter. I didn't love traditional journalism writing so I started making video packages for our YouTube page. This evolved into a full broadcast program and transformed our newspaper into a multimedia news outlet.

During my junior year, I became the Editor-in-Chief of our broadcast program and helped develop our productions into a weekly production. My team would participate in the full production process including: pre-production, production, and post production. We created a full news broadcasts that were full of news reads, feature packages, and reaccuring segments.

I dedicate a lot of my success to my time in this program. I learned how to create without restrictions. It was common practice for our team to come up with a complicated idea and it was my job to make it happen. I remember late nights editing and figuring out software. I was never taught how to edit, I learned through self discovery and research. I think this gave me a deeper understanding of the softwares and I would now consider them an extention of my body.

Film meets broadcast

When I started college, I was feeling burned out from journalism and wanted to explore a different side of media production. Rather than leaving journalism behind, I decided to double major in Film and Broadcast Journalism. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made. The relationship between live broadcasts and cinematic films is very close. My experience in both area enhances my overall preformance.

The most impactful experiences in college were my lecture classes. I entered college with years of hands-on production experience, but I had never taken the time to study why certain creative decisions work. By studying media history, I have created a video style that fits my personality. I think my work in film studies has helped me make journalistic videos more engaging.

I learned that every creative decision serves a purpose. Whether it is camera movement, composition, or editing, each choice can shape how an audience experiences a story. Combining film and journalism has allowed me to create content that is both informative and emotionally engaging. These lessons continue to influence my work today and help me build broadcasts that connect with viewers on a deeper level.

Real Work Experience

Classes are great, but nothing teaches you more than real-world experience. Before I even attended freshman orientation, I got a job working in IT on campus, where I created videos for professors. This role helped me develop muscle memory in video editing while introducing me to client-based production work. Although most of my projects focused on video, I also had opportunities to work with graphic design, motion graphics, and interactive learning modules. It was through this position that I learned to use Articulate 360 and further developed my skills in After Effects.

My second job was with PBS through its Student Reporting Labs program. My role was to teach high school students journalism and video production. While I had worked with students before through summer school programs, this experience was much more demanding. We had limited time in the classroom, so I had to make every lesson count. This challenged me to communicate production concepts clearly and adapt my teaching style to different groups of students. It was incredibly rewarding to watch the students develop their skills and discover the areas of production they were most passionate about.

After my time with PBS, I accepted a writing position with my university's School of Communications. At the time, I felt myself losing touch with my journalism roots, and this role gave me an opportunity to strengthen my reporting and writing skills. I need to remind myself that the best stories come from peoples experiences.

Esports Production

During my junior year of college, I discovered my passion for esports production. I took on the role of broadcast producer for our esports program as a way to build my live production skills. At the time, I never expected to fall in love with esports culture. It became a long-term passion and shaped my career direction.

About a year into the role, I stepped into a leadership position and helped expand the broadcast program significantly. We grew from producing occasional match streams to running a consistent weekly schedule that blended live and prerecorded content. Our goal was to connect the campus esports community and bridge the gap between different games and player groups.

Each week began with a long-form podcast-style show that highlighted members of the community and encouraged conversation around gaming. We also produced two live broadcasts featuring competitive matches against other colleges. These were full productions with casters, player interviews, graphics, and live match overlays. They gave players a more professional level of exposure while also giving our production team real, hands-on experience in live broadcasting.

We filled out the we with event highlight videosvof LAN events, inhouse competitions, or university engament. These videos helped bring attention to parts of the program that otherwise wouldn’t be seen and gave more visibility to the community behind the scenes.

I love how esports production naturally connects film and journalism. Video games focus on world building and story through visuals, like film, while esports is about capturing real moments as they happen. Esports production sits between those two approaches, translating a digital, fictional world into a real-time experience for an audience. That balance matches how I naturally approach production work and is what keeps me engaged in this field.