Hi, my name is Grace O’Rourke and I’m from California. In my free time I love to cheer at games, go to the beach, and volunteer at the animal shelter. Prior to taking the multimedia journalism course at UGA, I learned a little about journalism through online courses at Santa Monica city college, I took a broadcast journalism class at my high school, and most recently joined my school’s live news show. All of these experiences have given me knowledge that I hope I can apply to this course.

If you asked me more about what I do in my free time, I would tell you that it involves managing social media for a local barre fitness studio which consists of writing captions, designing graphics and figuring out what actually gets people to engage. This job started as a side gig but honestly taught me a lot about how to grab someone’s attention quickly, which feels pretty relevant to journalism.

I’m also really into local businesses. There’s just something about a small shop with a good owner. This is why I created a club at my school called Local Loop which shines a light on them, and it’s become one of my favorite things I’ve done.

I also enjoy volunteering at local animal shelters, which has genuinely been one of the most meaningful things I’ve done. The main point of it is to show up and helping in any way that I can; you can always support whether that means adopting/fostering or donating used towels/blankets

Outside of that I cheer, which keeps me busy and social in a way that balances out the other things that I do more behind the scenes.

I really got into journalism because I like telling stories about real people and real places, especially the stories that don’t always make the news but honestly probably should. I think I’m specifically most drawn to broadcast, mostly because I love the idea of being in the middle of a story as it’s happening rather than catching up to it later.

I still have a lot to learn and room to grow in all of these areas I’m involved in, but that’s just about a random mix of things I enjoy participating in.