Last week at UIC, we had the honor of hosting two incredible guest speakers who each shared their experiences and accomplishments, and offered advice to students who are interested in going into journalism.
Photo by UIC Her Campus
Griselda Flores, who is currently an Assignment Editor for Univision and a former Billboard Associate Editor, shared her experience and journey in the journalism industry. She shared that she first started at UIC as a pre-medicine student, but months later realized that her passion was in journalism. She transferred to Columbia College Chicago where she graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism. As a student, she had an internship with Telemundo in Los Angeles then continued to work there after graduation. She returned to her hometown after she decided to attend Northwestern and get her Masters in Journalism. To her, it was important to not stay too comfortable so she did whatever she could to get out of her comfort zone because she knew that that was the best way to grow as a person and in her career. Her advice to students is to apply for internships, get exposed in the field, not get too comfortable, and that it’s okay to not know what you’re going to do after graduating.
Dr. Margena Christian is a Distinguished Lecturer in English and a former EBONY Senior Editor. She shared her experiences and told students how she always knew she wanted to be a writer. Her career started at a young age; she had her first article published at the age of 15 when she was a sophomore in high school. She then continued her education at National Louis University where she completed her Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies, Curriculum and Instruction and then her Doctorate in Adult and Continuing Education. She shared about how she has met many celebrities such as Michael Jackson and his family, Prince, and Tyler Perry. She advised the students to network as much as possible, apply for internships, and get out of your comfort zone. Just like Ms. Flores, Dr. Christian also said that it is okay to not know what you want to do yet. She also states that learning how to self-publish is one of the best decisions because it helps you feel like you really accomplished something and it prevents from people taking credit for your work.
Photo by UIC Her Campus
It was an honor having two guest speakers who were willing to share their experiences and offer some crucial pieces of advice to the students who attended the event. We hope to have more guest speakers in the future!