By Jess Galvin
Jess Galvin is a senior at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, majoring in journalism with a concentration in sports journalism. She was recently selected to work at the Online News Association 2022 Student Newsroom & Innovation Lab and shares her experience below.
Over the summer, I got an email from Professor Steve Fox encouraging me to apply to the Online News Association Conference. He emphasized what a great opportunity it was and sent the link to the application form. If I’m being completely honest, all I saw in the email was “they fly you out to Los Angeles for free!"
With only a week before the deadline, I took my time to fill out the form, wrote out the application questions, and submitted it the day before it was due, per usual. While hitting the submit button, I knew the chances were slim of getting accepted since only 20 students get chosen nationwide, and I had little field experience prior to applying. But I held onto the hope that my writing would stick with the people reviewing the applications.
Within two weeks, I got a message from my professor while driving in the car with my dad, saying I had gotten accepted. I had to re-read the message ten times before damaging my dad’s ears by screaming ‘I’m going to LA!?!’.
The shock from receiving that news didn’t go away the entire summer. After I received the official email from ONA congratulating me a few weeks later, it was time to get to work.
The more I researched the student newsroom and the conference, the more intimidated I became. As part of the newsroom, I was expected to pitch a story related to the ONA conference to my assigned mentor, create content for the student newsroom website, and cover the conference while in Los Angeles. As if that wasn’t scary enough to read, I also looked over the other 19 student bios listing all their incredible accomplishments so far and immediately felt like they had made a mistake accepting me.
This opportunity was by far the biggest I had ever received, and I knew I could either run away scared or accept the fact that I was chosen for a reason and run with it.
I decided to pitch a story revolving around female empowerment in journalism, wanting to focus on the ONA Women’s Leadership Accelerator panel that was being held the Thursday of the conference. The WLA program accepts 26 women each year who exemplify leadership in the digital media industry, and I wanted to highlight these incredible leaders in my story.
After talking with my mentor, Jaya Franklin, for an hour on the phone about what I wanted my story to look like, my pitch was accepted, and I started preparing for my trip.
I remember the day before my flight, I had a stomachache and could barely eat, thanks to anxiety. I was traveling to a brand-new state by myself for a week, meeting new people from around the world, and networking with big named journalists and companies when I had no previous experience pitching myself to job recruiters. Simply put, I was terrified.
By the time I was sitting on the plane the next morning, the nerves went away. Mainly because of excitement and the fact that my life didn’t feel real at that moment.
Over the course of the week, I attended workshops, networked with several companies, conducted interviews, posted on ONA’s social media platforms, published two stories on the WLA program for the student newsroom website, and covered the ONA awards banquet on the final night of the conference. And yet even while I walked through the streets of downtown LA the day before my flight home, I still had to keep asking myself, ‘is this really real?’.
Looking back, the week in Los Angeles was by far the best experience of my life. Being surrounded by 19 student journalists and mentors who were so incredibly supportive and motivated was truly inspiring and set a fire within me. After a week, it felt like I had known some of them my whole life, which is such a rare and special feeling.
The ONA student newsroom pushed me to limits I never thought were possible. I returned to UMass Amherst feeling like a brand-new student journalist, with new skills, connections, possibilities, and especially lifelong friendships and relationships that I will never stop being grateful for.
So, if anyone ever has the opportunity to apply for something that seems too far out of reach, I say you better just run with it.
A selection of Jess Galvin's clips from ONA:
• Women's Leadership Accelerator cohorts back in person after two years