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- Year Of Graduation: 2022
- College/University: San Diego State University
- Major: Television, Film, and Media
What do you do for a living, or how are you supporting yourself right now? Can you share what a typical day in your life/at work looks like?
I work in the journalism industry as a digital producer. In terms of the day to day, I am producing stories for our website. I’m creating lead art for stories that we publish every day. I run a newsletter that is really focused on LA and California education news. I also manage our social media accounts and I pitch stories. It’s a lot of different things every day, it’s really fun.
I feel very fortunate to have studied what I studied and was really intentional about my extracurriculars in college and the spaces that I put myself in. I went to school in California because I knew that the opportunities in California were different than my hometown of Washington D.C. I felt like it was a change of scenery, but also a way to be exposed and also to learn hands-on approaches to the media industry.
Can you tell me about your experience finding a job after graduation? Are you happy with where your journey has led you thus far?
When I first graduated, I went into the higher education field because I was a student ambassador at my university. I was giving tours, I was a part of student affairs, and I was leading orientation for new students coming in. I was academically advising students as well. I loved doing that and getting to know students and getting to know their interests and passions and helping them, but I also was a student journalist on my campus and I loved that as well. So in my head when I was applying to postgrad jobs, I was like, “How can I combine the two? I am in California, but I have this, you know, East Coast attitude and mentality. How can I just blend all of this intersectionality going on?”
My first job out of school was at Berklee College of Music in Boston. I’d never been to Boston. Before moving there, I didn’t know anybody, but I knew that I had goals: to work in a creative setting, to help people, and to really explore and get my hands dirty with the real world. I worked at Berklee, and I got to know Boston and I loved it there so much that I was like, “Okay, I need to stay here. I need to make my path here. I need to do what I need to do.” I started talking to people and doing the same approach of how it was when I went to California for the first time.
I then stayed within the education realm, and interned at an education nonprofit publication. I kind of fell into education journalism just by staying true to my intersectionality, and I’ve been on the national education beat since I graduated. It has really become a beat that I have fallen in love with, and I’ve been able to kind of craft myself.
Why did you choose your undergrad major?
I went into college as a journalism major, but I did not graduate as a journalism major. I switched to TV, Film, and Media because I knew that I wanted to work in media. I remember my mom watching the Oprah Winfrey show back in the day, and I was so fascinated with the pop culture and interviewing celebrities, and I also played instruments for most of my life. So I thought maybe I could work in music and be a producer in the music industry. I was originally going to go to school for music, but then the 2016 election kind of reshaped everything for me.
My family was watching the news, I thought it was so cool how they could just say, “Okay, this state has voted this color.” I was so curious how they got to do that, and I wanted to do that too, I wanted to stay up all night and be chaotic on TV! I realized this was journalism and that I could be a political journalist, I could be a music journalist, an arts journalist, or whatever, so I started looking into journalism programs. I was originally keeping TV, Film, and Media as my minor, but I decided to switch and major in that instead.
It’s typically considered difficult to break into journalism. It’s an extremely competitive field, especially media. Do you have insights you could share here?
It’s definitely not easy to break into journalism. You really have to network. You hear it all the time, and you get tired of hearing it, but I think the more that you connect with people, the more opportunities will come your way. It’s partially all on who you know, but it’s really all on who knows you. I made a goal to explore the world around me, get to know the journalists in my community and in my world view. So the journalists in Boston, the journalists in San Diego, the journalists in LA, the Black journalists, those who are in my hometown.
Not everyone is helpful and compassionate and nice, but once you’re in a space where you have like-minded individuals, they can share opportunities, like if they know what you want to do, they’ll think of you for things in mind.
It’s also important to become an expert in what you want to focus on and write about it. If you want to explore nutrition and science, you can be a science journalist, you can be a health journalist, and fall into that beat. Starting a Substack and getting subscribers is great. That’s starting a newsletter. You can get your writing skills up to par. You can find people to edit your work. These are all things that you can do that are practical that can help you just be a better storyteller.
What does purpose mean to you? Do you think you’re living a purpose-driven life currently? Why or why not?
I just turned 25, and I feel like the theme of 25 is your frontal lobe developing. So everything is kind of changing and active right now. But I think purpose is when you feel like you can start and end your day knowing that you’re doing a good job, you tried your best, and you’re showing up.
I feel like I have fallen into perfectionism a lot as an eldest daughter and as a minority too, and I feel like that can present a lot of pressure, but I feel like now three years removed from school and actively working, I can recognize I am in a fortunate position where I can make a difference. My work doesn’t just resonate with me, but it resonates with other people.
What’s your biggest struggle right now? What led to it? How are you moving forward?
I would say the bicoastal lifestyle is tough, but there is a flip side. I do miss Boston a lot, and I feel like I always wonder, “Am I going to be doing the bicoastal thing forever? Is there ever going to be a place that I feel most comfortable? Is there ever going to be a place that’s the perfect fit?”
I love being bicoastal, and I love that I’m from the East Coast, but there are opportunities everywhere. Like, will I know which one to choose? As I evolve, too, I always think about if I’m in the right place. I often feel like living on the West Coast means I’m behind the news cycle because I wake up and the news already dropped at 6 a.m. when it’s really 9 a.m. in New York. As a journalist, there’s probably never a right place to be, but there are some places better than others. I try my best to be planted where I am, but I can’t help but always think about the perfect place where I can be all that I need to be.
What do you want to spend more time working on, either personally or professionally? What is stopping you?
I started a group for student journalists to acclimate to the media industry called Media Moments. I came up with that idea in 2023 after speaking to one of my friends who was still in school. He was trying to navigate the media industry, and I was connecting him with people and opportunities to apply to things. I was like, “Well if he needs this, so many other people need it, and I’m passionate about that.”
Last year I had a panel installment series where every month I had maybe two or three panelists on a panel where students could come virtually wherever they were in the world and learn about the media industry. I feel like I have kind of neglected that this year. I would love to figure out how to revive that in 2025 because the panel installment series was just for 2024.
How do you define being a successful person?
Just showing up, because you can’t give more than what you have, and I feel like I’ve burnt out so many times in my life and my career, especially working in the media industry. It’s never worth it. You can’t operate and nobody gets the best of you. You don’t even get the best of you. I feel like showing up with what you have is the key to success.
Can you elaborate on burnout in the journalism industry? It’s more common than people realize.
It’s one of those industries that people want to go into, you know, they romanticize it. I definitely did at one point. There are some newsrooms that still operate with the mentality of getting the story done by any means necessary. People don’t want to lose their opportunity. People don’t want to lose reputation. They don’t want to lose the exposure. And yeah, the product might come out great, but the journalist might not be great.
I’ve seen this happen to so many of my fellow colleagues. I know some newsrooms don’t have days off. They don’t have the proper compensation. They don’t have benefits. They don’t have these things that you would think that a workplace should have, but it’s just because it’s a weird industry. It’s not traditional. We have to deliver the news whether it’s breaking at 3:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. I think that’s where that burnout comes in because we have to stop at some point, but our job doesn’t.
If we traveled three years into the future of your life, what do you want to achieve? What would you hope has changed?
I want to write books. I want to win awards. I eventually want to work in a classroom too. I think if these goals haven’t been achieved by then, I would like to be very close to achieving them or just, you know, working my way to them. I don’t know if I would be on a coast. I could be in the Midwest. I could be out of the country. Who knows? Like I said, it keeps me up at night where I could end up, but a lot can happen in three years.
What’s the biggest lesson or piece of advice you wish you’d known earlier?
Hard work pays off. I always say that. It’s something you hear all the time, but it’s true. You can’t be passive about things. I mean, some people can, they’re fortunate via privilege and things like that, but in general, you really have to work hard for the things that you want. If you set a goal, you can’t just wait for it to happen. You have to get disciplined, and you have to work towards it. When something happens to somebody, I always think, you know, I know that didn’t come overnight.
Connect With Trinity:
- LinkedIn: @TrinityAlicia
- Instagram: @TrinityAliciaa
- Read: Some of Trinity’s favorite stories she’s written/produced
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