In high school I was a yearbook staffer for three years. I loved journalism then, but for all different reasons than I do now. I would spend hours tweaking layouts, cropping photos and creating graphics. Writing for me was just something I had to do, not something I enjoyed at all. That changed when I took my first journalism class at Georgetown with Alec Klein. Professor Klein shared with us his enthusiasm for the well-researched narrative and helped our class realize that writing can be wonderful when you have the right details and have done your best reporting. That class convinced me to become an English major. I took an Investigative Reporting class with Professor Klein the next year, and my obsession for reporting grew. When I spent my semester in Argentina junior year, I remained involved with journalism, writing for the Cafe Abroad newsletter. Then, the following semester, I found Pearl Project. Pearl Project was by far the best class I had in college. I learned everything first hand as our team worked to solve an international murder case. I was able to work alongside my professors, Barbara Feinman Todd and Asra Nomani, observing their techniques for everything from calling strangers in Pakistan to finding the perfect lede. The summer before senior year, Barbara introduced me to her former Georgetown student, Erika Niedowski, who offered me an internship working at the Washington bureau of The National, a brand new English-language paper based in Abu Dhabi. First semester of my senior year, I took Media Techniques with Linda Kramer Jenning. In that class, I was able to interview another Georgetown alum, Brian Kelly, editor of U.S. News & World Report. When an internship opened up at U.S. News in August, Professor Kramer Jenning recommended I apply. Thanks to all my mentors, classes and experiences at Georgetown, I got a job working for both the Opinion and Nation and World sections and hope to continue my journalism career in the future.