In my career, I’ve had the honor of working for two incredible stations, Oregon Public Broadcasting and KLCC: NPR for Oregonians. I’ve worked on many stories for both, and have some features I think you should check out here:
The Hearst Audio Journalism Awards
From left to right: Pierce Gentry (the most dapper), Layli Nazarova (#1 and so deserved), Henry Taylor (returning champ, great beard), Sarah Ellis (podcaster extraordinaire), Blake Mace (my editing buddy!) (© Photo by Jakub Mosur)
Frantic, I called 30 different people from various immigration law offices, immigration activist groups, churches, schools and more. Then, through a Google search of “San Francisco Immigration”, I found out about a recent ICE raid at the San Francisco Immigration Court (a block from my hotel!) So, I had my first stop for the morning. For lunch, I stopped by a Mexican restaurant, ordered a burrito and asked the man at the counter a difficult question in Spanish: “Hi. My name is Julia. I’m a journalist. I’m here working on a story about immigrants in San Francisco. Please, feel free to say no, but is there anyone here who would be willing to talk to me?”
Two pieces from my summer at OPB had been submitted to the Hearst Journalism Awards Competition and had placed 6th out of 57 entries from 33 schools across the country, enough to buy me a ticket to the final championship in San Francisco.
Once I touched down in the city, the clock started ticking. I had 2 1/2 days to create a 2 minute audio piece from scratch — no research, no scheduled interviews, no real idea of what my story would end up looking like. All I had was a prompt: Show how one of Trump’s executive orders is affecting life in the Bay Area. Immediately, I thought of immigration, a topic I had been wanting to pursue throughout my journalistic career. But with no preparation, I had no idea how to create the story.
Eventually, I spoke to the man who was cleaning the restaurant. He was undocumented. I started our interview apologizing in advance for my broken Spanish and reassuring him that he could stop the interview whenever he needed. His story was one of resilience and sacrifice. He spoke quietly, intermittently checking that I wouldn’t use his name. He said he hoped that one day, he would listen to the news and hear Trump say everything has calmed down, and he could finally live peacefully, without fear. With an immense amount of gratitude for this man’s time, vulnerability and bravery in speaking to me — and a weight on my heart from everything he had just disclosed to me — I got to work.
I will never forget the incredible experience I had through this short trip. I learned so much about myself and audio storytelling, and I was able to create a project I am extremely proud of in 2 freaking days!! Plus, the incredible people I met along the way and the stories I heard have only inspired me further.
Julia the Journalist 