After moving from New York City to Washington, my passion for helping people tell their stories deepened by teaching and advising. I taught several college-level journalism and communication courses across three cities and advised two student-led media publications.

CLARK COLLEGE

In 2017, I taught my first journalism course as an adjunct instructor at Clark College. There was a huge learning curve as I balanced lesson planning, providing meaningful feedback for my students, holding regular office hours, and receiving mentorship, all while teaching myself how to teach every day. I had to step outside of my comfort zone in order to grow as an educator. In the process, I empowered my students to do the same and helped them cultivate their own unique journalistic voices by having them practice pitching story ideas, interviewing sources, reporting, and writing.

CLACKAMAS COLLEGE

In 2018, I accepted a short-term teaching and advising position at Clackamas Community College. Surprisingly, the biggest challenge during my time here wasn’t the teaching aspect. It was learning how to listen and learn from a group of dedicated and determined student journalists who were eager to produce a weekly newspaper. As their adviser, my goal was to help my staff reporters dig deeper for stories that have legs and steer clear of fluff pieces that only speak to their personal interests. I helped my students learn how to strike a balance between what’s news and what’s noise.

PIERCE COLLEGE

From 2018 to 2020, I stepped into the role of teaching and advising at Pierce College. In my mass media course, I cultivated creative spaces for students to have dynamic discussions on issues in our culture that shape whose approval we care about the most, where we get our information, and how much power we give over to big media companies that tell us how to think, feel, and even order our lives. As the journalism instructor and student media adviser, I created a pathway for students in my class to receive hands-on experience through their student media publication.