Whether you’re an incoming, current, or recently graduated student, it’s not easy figuring out what to do after college. Many people have asked me how I decided to commit to a Master’s in Journalism. The straightforward answer is that I’ve been involved in school newspapers since middle school. So on the outside, my path might seem obvious. But I actually tried to quit multiple times.
My first taste of journalism came in middle school, when I took a combined yearbook-newspaper elective. I thought it might be fun because I liked writing and design. Content-wise, I learned many foundational terms from there: blank space, the rule of thirds, nut grafs. But on the social end, I had a hard time speaking up, so I felt very lonely. We had a class group chat that was active every day; I only observed from the outside. I remember being stressed about asking teachers if I could leave early to cover an event. I also had a hard time with interviews. At the end of the year, I told my parents and friends that I’d never do journalism (or yearbook) again.
In high school, I continued to pursue creative writing. Advisors told me that taking a related elective might help with college applications. So I applied to journalism three different times. I was finally accepted in my last year, as a senior.
Though I had less social anxiety, the initial story was largely the same. Many of my journalism classmates knew each other from previous years, and I was afraid of intruding on their friendships. In fact, I envied our sworn enemies, yearbook: I had many friends taking that elective, and they seemed to have tight-knit relationships. But in my second semester, I began talking to my journalism classmates that also liked creative writing. Additionally, I joined a game design team where I befriended the people from my middle school class, the people in yearbook, and the people in journalism. Now, I say second-semester senior year was my favorite part of high school and possibly the best part of my life. It felt like everything had come full circle.
Then, I went to Berkeley. As a freshman, I applied to the Daily Californian, our newspaper, and was rejected. I was also rejected from one of the mental health clubs, which sucked because my main high school extracurriculars were writing and mental health. I spent a lot of first semester freshman year generally feeling quite lost. I reapplied to the Daily Cal in my second semester, this time for the social media department, and I was finally accepted.
In my junior year, I became the head editor for the Daily Cal’s social media department. I learned so much from this role, including how to lead and how a newspaper works on the inside. I also built up my social media portfolio and experiences, which helped me gain internships and other positions. But mostly, I learned that I personally don’t do well with on-call work. We had to post relevant news in a timely manner, which meant I was constantly checking Slack. I’ve been told by journalists and social media managers alike that this is common practice. However, it’s hard for me to set healthy boundaries in that kind of environment. Based on that, I again decided that I wasn’t built for journalism.
During that time, I was also doing Berkeley’s journalism minor. I regularly coffee chatted journalists and professors I’d met through my classes. I also received emails from the Journalism School’s career development director about internships and opportunities. I thought about how great the department was and how many journalism niches there were. I’ve met so many people affiliated with Berkeley, and much of my network is built up of kind alumni or friends of alumni who agreed to chat with me. So I reframed my thinking to, I’d rather not do on-call news journalism, but soft journalism or multimedia storytelling would be an ideal position. This was not a strong preference but rather one of many potential career options.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do a Master’s at first. But when the application opened, I figured I might as well apply. I was starting to feel like I wanted to stay in Berkeley longer. There were so many resources and student discounts I hadn’t yet used: the full Adobe Suite, the discounts to the SF Symphony, the free noon concerts on Wednesdays. And I liked the people I was around. So I wrote my essays, had my friends look over them, and sent them in. When I got accepted in February, I knew in my heart I wanted to go.
As the new school year approaches, I can’t say I’m not nervous. By now, you’ve gotten a sense of how rocky the journey has been, and I’m worried about finances, workload, and experience gaps. I know some of my classmates have worked as professional journalists. I call myself news-adjacent; I’ve worked in newspapers, but I haven’t done much (if any) news coverage in the last 4 years. From what I’ve seen, though, grad students often have less of the competitive undergraduate mindset. Going out and living life helps put grades in perspective.
Obviously, there are many threats facing journalism: conflict over AI usage, funding cuts, harassment of student journalists. To quote Fahrenheit 451, “I remember the newspapers dying like huge moths. No one wanted them back. No one missed them.” But every time I mention journalism, people tell me, “good for you. We need more journalists in the world.” I want to do something with a purpose, and I have the privilege to be able to do that.
If you’re worried about your own major, or postgrad degree, or career path, know that nothing is set. I’ve talked to so many journalists and career professionals who majored in something completely unrelated. Most of them stumbled into their current job by doing this and that, relying on a mixture of practicality and passion. I don’t have to be a journalist forever or even at all. But no matter where I end up, I’m excited to see where this round of journalism takes me.