The fact that I am employed at all right now is a direct testament to the value of my journalistic experience at Georgetown. Here goes.

At the behest of a fellow Harbin resident, I stumbled into the office of The Georgetown Independent my freshman year and began a fulfilling collegiate writing career, covering such topics as the 1999 solidarity sit-in and shakeups in the McDonough School of Business. Over my three years at the Indy, I found my reporting experiences exhilarating, reveling in the interviewing and writing processes. And, in several editorial capacities, I was able to hone my critical reading skills and gain on-the-job deadline experience with editing copy. We produced excellent copy in that office, and I remain very proud of those stories to this day.

While at the Independent, I sparked up a friendship with the paper's adviser, who would later encourage me not only to take two of her journalism courses but also to pursue writing-related activities outside of the classroom. As a diligent SFS student, I had, up to that point, focused most of my non-school time toward foreign policy and congressional internships, and the idea of change excited me. I ended up at the OnPolitics section of washingtonpost.com, where I spent dozens of hours each week learning from print journo veterans about analysis, news judgment, AP style and how to function in a newsroom environment.

Washington, the media world included, is all about contacts, about meeting the right person at the right time to get your foot in the door, and my professional advancement was no different: Through a supervisor at my internship, I learned of a job with NationalJournal.com, where the editor in chief was no other than my contact's brother-in-law. Small world. As graduation and the prospect of "the real world" were looming large on my horizon, I rang the editor, sent in my resume and prayed.

In my interview for an assistant editor position, for which 1-3 years of previous experience was required, I tried not to be a nervous wreck. One to three years? I didn't have any, and I definitely had some questions as to how I had made it this far in the process. When asked to account for my lack of experience, however, my confidence suddenly returned. I felt at ease as I proudly offered up my three years in collegiate journalism and my nearly full-time washingtonpost.com internship as surrogates to comparable durations of professional endeavor. My interviewer must have agreed, because I beat out several hundred applicants and landed the job.

So, it's because of what Georgetown taught me that I've been here for two-and-a-half years and am still loving every moment. Press conferences, political conventions, overnight election hours, I eat it all up -- even the 4:30 a.m. wakeup call doesn't affect me as much anymore. I fell in love with journalism at Georgetown, and it's a love I have no doubt will last.