Olivia Sanchez: Portland Then and Now

 

At this point, I'm basically an Olivia Sanchez copy-cat. 

UP alum Sanchez got her start in reporting as the opinions editor for The Beacon back when she was a student. Originally a psych major planning on going into therapy and social work, Sanchez fell in love with reporting and decided to get her masters degree in journalism from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication following graduation. 

However, before she went on to get her masters and pursue journalism professionally, Sanchez was an intern at the Portland Tribune in the summer between her junior and senior year. This, being in the newsroom and engaging with editors, really encouraged Sanchez to pursue journalism as a career. 

This summer, I'll be starting my own internship at the Portland Tribune, a position that gives me knots in my stomach just thinking about doing. 

Sitting down with Sanchez over Zoom, me in Portland and her in DC, we reminisced on her old Beacon days, asking what was different and what was still the same and if I recognized any of the names of her old co-workers, we swapped stories of our faculty advisor Nancy Copic and how much we both love the newsroom. Sanchez did her best to squash my anxieties for the internship by recounting her time at the Tribune and all the growth and joy it brought her. 

One story specifically stuck out to me she offered in response to a question about imposter syndrome, or feeling like you don't deserve the things you are getting. 

Being a younger reporter, I talked to Sanchez about working in a place where you are by far the youngest person there. Sanchez then about working at The Hechinger Report as a higher education reporter, and how her youth and proximity to being in school compared to her older coworkers actually helps her bring a fresh perspective to the newsroom instead of hindering her experience because she is so young. 

Sanchez tells me more anecdotes of her job and of her internship as we chat back and forth over the Zoom call. It's 4pm where she is and she's done with work for the day, now doing laundry and shooing her cat off the freshly washed clothes. She instructs me to reach out if I have any questions about anything or feel like I want to cry from nerves before my internship starts. 

They always tell you it's important to make connections in this industry, and I find my time as a reporter and editor working for The Beacon is made up of a lot of that. But in talking to Olivia I learned about the power of just having a friend in the same industry as you are, not for any professional leverage, but because it can be a daunting world and it's nice to have someone who's been exactly where you are.