{"id":5656,"date":"2021-09-05T11:55:47","date_gmt":"2021-09-05T15:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/?p=5656"},"modified":"2021-09-05T12:03:09","modified_gmt":"2021-09-05T16:03:09","slug":"hunter-journalism-student-attends-nabj-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/2021\/09\/05\/hunter-journalism-student-attends-nabj-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Journalism Student Attends NABJ Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Nyya Collins, Journalism Major<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Media studies major Nyya Collins attended her first journalism conference last month with hopes of growing her professional network. She indeed found more contacts for future opportunities, but she also learned another valuable lesson: As uncomfortable as it might feel, you have to summon enough courage to strike up a conversation in a room full of strangers, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Q&A with Hunter College Journalism, Collins reflected on her days attending the National Association of Black Journalists 2021 convention. The conversation has been edited for clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT DID YOU EXPECT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THE CONFERENCE?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COLLINS: I was really expecting for me to get in contact with someone who might be, like, nice for networking and that\u2019s what I was really looking forward to \u2014 networking and just making sure that I find some type of internship. I did find people. I reached out to someone from the New York Times, CNN, Warner Media (and) Yahoo! I actually spoke to someone from the New York Times but she was saying how, like, you have to have writing pieces that are already published. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT\u2019S SOMETHING YOU LEARNED ABOUT JOURNALISM THAT YOU DIDN\u2019T KNOW BEFORE THE CONFERENCE?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COLLINS: It was about freelance. I guess I really wasn\u2019t that educated when it comes to a freelance journalist because I thought everyone\u2019s goal was to be part of someone\u2019s company, write, and get your salary. At first, I looked down on freelance journalists because I thought you\u2019d want that reassurance of that paycheck that you know is coming every month to pay your bills and save up for your next car and your next trip. It is hard work trying to find it, but once you have a certain style and once you know your flow and you understand the things that interest you, you\u2019re going to stick with it [and] you won\u2019t automatically want to jump on New York Times or L.A. Times staff. And I was like OK that kinda educated me a little bit.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT\u2019S YOUR ADVICE FOR HUNTER STUDENTS LOOKING TO ATTEND A CONFERENCE IN THE FUTURE?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COLLINS: Always say hi my name is so-and-so. Here\u2019s my LinkedIn, here\u2019s my social media. Be very open-minded for any type of conversation. Tap into things that you wouldn\u2019t normally tap into. Like I know I\u2019m really not that interested in sports \u2014 I didn\u2019t even know when the Olympics was happening until everyone posted memes of it \u2014 but when I recognized sports and stuff like that, I still say \u2018hey you can check this out.\u2019 So, keep an open mind. Have your [social media] handles and your elevator pitch all ready and on hand and step outside your comfort zone. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media studies major Nyya Collins attended her first journalism conference last month with hopes of growing her professional network. She indeed found more contacts for future opportunities, but she also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,18],"tags":[286],"class_list":["post-5656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage_news","category-journalism-program-news","tag-fall-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5697,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5656\/revisions\/5697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}