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As grad season rolls around and graduates begin to reminisce on the last four years, there is always one question left to answer, “What’s next?” Whether it’s graduate school, a new jobor a moment to rest after college years, these students are the next generation of doctors, engineers, educators and of course journalists.
After four years of photo essays, news writing, and storytelling, UTEP’s multimedia journalism students will make their way to the forefront of modern-day journalism. So, what does the future look like for these students? To help answer this question, two upcoming multimedia journalism graduates put down their pens and stepped out from being behind the cameras to give a vision of what it is like for them.
Paola Marquez, a multimedia journalism major and creative writing minor, says journalism has always been her calling in life.
“I’ve always wanted to be a journalist for as long as I can remember, and I remember I used to have the journalist Barbie,” Marquez said. “It’s always been a thing that I’ve been interested in, and I love writing, so it all fits in together.”
Initially, Marquez pursued journalism because she hoped to meet new people and learn more about who she worked with. However, after taking a variety of courses pertaining to different areas of journalism, Marquez grew to love photography and the intercultural aspects of the craft.
She says that after she receives her bachelor’s degree this semester, she plans to attend graduate school to get her master’s degree followed by a Ph.D. in intercultural communications or marketing.
“It’s really fun how everything has to do with culture, and culture doesn’t actually have a meaning,” Marquez said. “It’s a different type of psychology and sociology, but with something that is still interesting to me, like with marketing, public relations, and journalism as well.”
For Marquez, connecting with professors allowed her to understand that a degree in journalism does not confine her to the typical jobs one may expect a journalist to strive for.
“It makes it easier for you to know what you’re going to do after a bachelor’s because I was debating between going straight into journalism or an academic route,” Marquez said. “I got to see two perspectives.”
Marquez says having the chance to walk across the stage to receive her diploma is a dream come true.
“To be able to fulfill this goal that I’ve had as a kid into an adulthood, it feels weird and it’s still surreal.” Marquez said.
For Alan Tiscareno, a multimedia journalism major and Chicano studies minor, journalism opened the doors to a new beginning. Tiscareno moved to El Paso in 2018 from Veracruz, Mexico after his high school graduation. Although he had interest in the subject since middle school, Tiscareno says it wasn’t until he took a photojournalism course at El Paso Community College that he truly discovered his love for journalism.
“It was a challenge, and I did all of it,” Tiscareno said. “It was just a realization that, I’m good at this, I’m good at communicating and I’m good at talking with people.”
Within two years of being at UTEP, Tiscareno was selected as the city editor of Borderzine and interned with The Texas Standard. From these experiences, Tiscareno says he learned a valuable lesson about himself and his fellow journalism peers.
“Probably the biggest lesson was that I(was) resilient and I can adapt to change. It’s super easy to summarize my life story in five minutes but, you know, I experienced all of that,” Tiscareno said. “UTEP students are resilient, we have this thing where we can have nothing, but we make gold with it.”
After graduating with Magna Cum Laude Academic Honor this semester, Tiscareno will accept a freelance position with the BBC and hopes to continue a career in radio and sports journalism.
“Anything that comes, I’m going to take the opportunity,” Tiscareno said. “My whole dream or my whole journey with journalism is just doing wherever it takes.”
Marquez and Tiscareno will graduate together from the College of Liberal Arts on Saturday, May 11 at 1 p.m. in the Don Haskins Center.
Alyda Muela is a contributor and may be reached at [email protected]; @alyrose.photos on Instagram.
