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Finding empowerment in good examples

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Roosevelt High School student Sierra Aimua is looking hard at a journalism career. She is currently attending the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Journalism and Beyond program on the Eau Claire campus.

                “I first became interested in writing in the seventh grade,” Aimua said, “when my writing teacher, Miss Francis, told me she thought I had a talent for writing. I wrote a paper on amusement parks, and she encouraged me to write a two-page paper on parks.”

                “In eighth grade, my English teacher, Mr. Baldwin, assigned me an essay about private and public schools. I asked other students about the two, and found that many preferred the public schools.”

                Baldwin also encouraged Aimua to do some original writing. “He encouraged me to write the story of how I became a new person,” she said. “’The Phoenix’ was the story of how I came from dwelling on the past to where I am now where I think about the future.” This is still a work in progress, she admits.

                Aimua stated that the print media are more attractive to her than broadcast at this point. “I see myself writing books and articles and not so much doing broadcasting,” she said. “I might go into broadcasting if I had more training.”

                Regardless of the career choice, Aimua is a positive and energetic student. “I hope when my work career is over that people will remember me as one who really worked hard and put herself into everything she did,” she said.

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