I graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mass communications and Spanish in May 2009 and I will be continuing my education in the fall as a graduate student in the Department of Technical Communication.

As IMPACT Cutting Edge Film Committee Chair, I was dedicated to promoting diversity through educational films, documentaries, foreign language films, independent film, and diverse programming. One of my largest priorities was to provide consistent weekly quality entertainment through blockbuster films, as well as continuing to provide opportunities for students to get personally involved in the filmmaking process through amateur film festivals. By far my most memorable experience with the film committee was developing the 48-Hour Filmmaker Festival. The 48-Hour Filmmaker Festival was something that I had been thinking about for quite a while, and was as I designed the application, compiled the rules, and designed the judging ballots using prior knowledge I had when some of my friends and I had participated in similar events back home. The program turned out to be much more successful than I anticipated, with 10 applicants and more than 100 students, faculty, and community members of all ages in attendance. It also appeared in several stories in both the Mankato Free Press and the Reporter, as well as on KMSU radio. This program has since become an annual event and has continued for four years. I organized and publicized MSU’s first-ever LUNAFEST, a short film festival by, for and about women and fundraiser for Breast Cancer and the Committee Against Domestic Abuse in 2007 and again in Spring 2009. This program aimed at empowering women behind the scenes of the camera. I also worked at the Movie Gallery before it closed and I feel like I have lot of knowledge and enthusiasm related to the position.

During my two years at the Reporter, I gained vital experience covering campus news, writing feature stories, and entertainment reviews. As the assistant news editor, one of my main duties was to assist in story assignments and mentor newer staff members as they navigated generating ideas, finding sources, writing, and editing. I was also the first set of eyes to copy edit anything that came across the news desk using AP style. Covering student senate for more than a year required extra diligence when note taking, fact checking, reading charts and graphs, and often required additional research outside of the senate meeting. I received a Minnesota Newspaper Association Award for arts and entertainment reporting in January 2009. I was selected to attend the 2008 American Collegiate Press (ACP) National College Media Convention in San Francisco, CA and the only Reporter staff member selected to attend the 2007 Trojan Evolve Sexual Health Roundtable for collegiate journalists in Denver, CO.

I maintain multiple personal blogs and I am currently a freelance writer for 605 Magazine, in Sioux Falls, S.D., which is published monthly. I have also done some freelance writing for the Mankato Free Press and Mankato Magazine.