A New Career Interest Leads to a Major Media Fellowship

Coming from LA, my first degree consisted of mostly creative projects and hands-on experience in studio spaces; not many classes to work on my writing or focus on all the different industries within media. Or … how to be a journalist. I took one English Composition class, and that was it.

Within my first few weeks of LIM’s on-campus classes—before the entire world locked down due to the Coronavirus pandemic—my ambition pleasantly met with a newfound passion for media and literature.

My program at LIM introduced me to a vast media world that was full of possibilities for me. There was radio, broadcast journalism / cable news, television, film, poetry, novels, digital media, print media, and I fell in love with all of them.

This fascination changed my academic life and the way I looked at being in New York. Here I am, in the capital of media and journalism, reading and studying the influential writers and journalists who walked the very same streets I was walking, with a similar ambition to create and tell our stories, and to do it well … and to do it here.

The New Journalism was the first class I had ever taken under the journalism umbrella in Fashion Media. Throughout the weeks of writing, reading, and editing, and with the encouragement of my professor, I had the confidence to go forward in the direction I wanted.

During the pandemic, like many other Americans, I was laid off from a position I’d held for two years. While this was less than ideal, it gave me the opportunity to leave retail and apply for jobs in media. The first thing I did was search as many job postings as I could for entry level media positions at a publication or digital media company. After a few rejection emails and many Zoom interviews that led nowhere, it was on to my personal contacts list.

Over lunch with a friend, a reporter at Business Insider, she encouraged me to apply for one of their fellowships, which is how she got started at the company. I looked, I applied, but what really helped me get my position was I saw their head of subscription strategy Tweet that she was looking for a fellow. I sent her a DM and I was in my first round of interviews within a matter of days.

Almost three months later, I have been working as Business Insider’s subscription strategy, content, and events fellow directly under Olivia Oran, the head of subscription strategy. I have never loved a job more. I pinch myself when I think about how in just my first year at LIM College, I have not only learned so much more than I ever thought I would, but I’ve landed my first job in media, and at a major business news website.

My LIM professors saw something in me and encouraged me to write, encouraged me to read, encouraged me to ask questions and to continue to be bold, and for that I am forever grateful.