Hello World! I was born and raised in East St. Louis, Il. To many of you, East St. Louis is nothing more than a poor, high-crime community, whose residents are hopeless. I'm not going to act as if my city doesn't have its problems, but I'm here to say that East St. Louis is filled with proud, caring, intelligent, talented, driven individuals who just want a chance to make it in this world. I am one of those individuals. Despite what you've heard in the media, I received a stellar education in the East St. Louis public school system. It was there that I discovered my knack for writing. At a very young age I began writing stories and competing in the Young Author's Competition. I even won first place in the 2nd grade with my book, The Duck Who Ate Junk Food. From there I went on to excel in essay writing. In elementary school, I won an essay competition hosted by Bi-State (now Metro), on pollution; that afforded my entire class a trip to Six Flags. In high school, I won the 1999 Principal Scholars Essay Competition. Over the years I had become so passionate about writing, that by my Junior year, I had decided I was going to major in Journalism in college. In fall 2001, I entered college at the wonderful University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and by spring 2005, I had graduated with a B.S. in Journalism. Journalism has afforded me some amazing opportunities! I've had internships at the Belleville News-Democrat and the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). I've written for the online publication Patch.com, for its Clayton and Florissant branches. I've attended national conferences through the National Association of Black Journalists, and most importantly, I've made connections with some of the most highly influential people in the field of Communications. Another passion in my life is Education. It is because of this that I am pursuing my second Masters in the M.A.T. program at SIUE, and planning on teaching high school English next fall. I hope to inspire my future students and help develop the next generation of writers. I think writing is one of the greatest forms of communication! Check out my idea of the evolution of writing below!
