Over the course of my time as a student at Pepperdine, I have written a good news once a semester. They’ve ranged from how I rediscovered my love for art to why I love the chairs on main campus.
But, when I think about it, the best news I can find in college, I find in journalism.
I’ve loved telling stories since I was little, but I didn’t realize until college that this could be my career. Journalism is an art, a job and my biggest passion — and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
I find good news in the people I meet through this job.
I have been able to interview students with passions I would never know about otherwise and see them light up when they start talking about how they came to Pepperdine and their dreams for the future.
I hear administrators talk about how they are working to make our school better in every way they can. I take bits and pieces of wisdom from those interviews and tuck them away in my Notes app to return to when I need some inspiration. Tim Spivey and Connie Horton — quotes from you two will keep me going for another decade.
I meet professors and get to ask them why they love what they do — and it’s always because they love their students so deeply. These interviews show me why I love this community so much.
I have found some of my closest friends and biggest mentors have through interviews too.
A hard interview with Sharon Beard led to her becoming one of my biggest mentors and someone I have gained so much wisdom from. A funny interview with senior Ginger Jacobs led me to ask her to be my sophomore-year roommate. An informational interview with alumna Katie Price (’22) led to a sweet friendship I will always cherish.
When I hear I get to spend the day in the newsroom, that’s good news to me. I am going to miss taking a nap on our couch, hunkering down in my office with my sappy music playing and forcing my dog, Daisy, to be our Graphic and NewsWaves mascot.
I see good news in our staff — from the student journalists who came before me and taught me everything I know — to now, people asking me all the questions that I still don’t feel qualified enough to answer. I wouldn’t know how to write a broadcast script if it wasn’t for Brianna Willis, and I wouldn’t have quite as much fun in the newsroom if it wasn’t for Nina Fife. These people bring me good news.
My advisers bring me good news too, and I wouldn’t love journalism as much as I do if it wasn’t for them. Elizabeth Smith shows me grace and how to lead with faith. She has sat with me through every high and low in the newsroom, and I look up to her in more ways than I can write.
Theresa de los Santos pushes me to be the best I can while loving me every step of the way. Christina Littlefield shows me how to combine my two passions — faith and the news — and Courtenay Stallings shows me how to be intentional and thoughtful and always knows just what I need.
From watching a show develop from a simple idea to an hour-long special broadcast outside of the studio to watching a blank page develop into a newspaper that I can read while drinking my morning coffee, I find good news in the production of the news too.
As I start my career as a professional journalist, I know I’ll keep finding more good news. As I bounce around now from news market to news market, I find hope in the fact that I get to learn from new communities and hopefully tell stories that will make an impact and a difference in our world.
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Follow the Graphic on X: @PeppGraphic
Contact Abby Wilt via X: @abby_wilt or by email: abby.wilt@pepperdine.edu
