Hi! I’m Leah Nelson. Twenty years, two months and five days ago I was born in Dallas, Texas. When I was sixteen, I moved to Topeka, Kansas for my junior and senior year of high school. In high school, I swam on the swim team for four years and I was on the yearbook staff my last two years in Kansas. At the end of my junior year, the scrambling of the deadline is what made me decide I wanted to go into journalism.

My decision to come to the University of Arkansas was sudden and surprising. My senior year came around and I had no idea where I wanted to continue my education. I applied to various small schools not too far away from home to keep my options open. I applied to eight schools without touring any of them. After a fight with one of my friends, I was texting my best friend from Texas and she told me to apply to Arkansas and that’s exactly what I did.

Last year I worked for The Arkansas Traveler as a writer. It helped me get out of my comfort zone and helped me get better with my interviewing skills. While I had a fun time with some of my topics, I realized how much I missed yearbook and feature writing, so now I’m writing for The Razorback.

In my free time I like to hang out with my friends and watch Netflix but over the next few weeks, my free time will consist of unpacking my apartment. My occupied time consists of working, sorority meetings and gatherings, as well as school. This year I’m planning on getting more involved in my sorority. I at least want to know all of the girls’ names and attend most of the events that are offered.

In my opinion, the best story I’ve ever written was on a sorority who is building a house on campus for The Arkansas Traveler ( http://www.uatrav.com/news/article_e6709d58-249b-11e7-893b-e7118076c438.html ).

I do not have much experience with data, only what you taught us in News Reporting I. Something I’m looking forward to this year is getting better with my writing skills (I need help with commas), becoming comfortable with excel and data, and learning how to take high-quality pictures and making graphics.

I found it interesting and kind of funny that they said data journalism makes reporting less stressful because most journalists don’t like math and I know I get uneasy with numbers.