Growing up in a small town outside of Scranton, Pa., I was always involved sports. I started playing basketball and golf when I was 7 years old. I fell in love playing these sports because they were fun and I was naturally good at them. When I wasn't playing on the court or the course, I was watching these and other sports on television. I would get up every morning before I left for school and watch ESPN's SportsCenter to check and see how my favorite teams and players performed in the most recent game or tournament.

I went to Sacred Heart High School in Carbondale, Pa., where I played on the varsity basketball and golf teams. During my sophomore year, I realized that I wanted to work in sports, but I knew my athletic ability wasn't going to take me to next level. It wasn't until I received amazing grades in my English classes that I realized that writing was my strongest attribute. As a result, I found my calling in journalism.

After four years at Penn State, I am going to graduate in May with a degree in journalism with an emphasis in sports journalism and a minor in philosophy. In addition to my degree, I have experienced the news field first hand through my internship at The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md., and my volunteer work at Voices of Central Pennsylvania in State College, Pa.

At the Times, I worked as a sports writing intern during the summer of 2008. I reported on a wide variety of local and high school sports throughout the Eastern Shore area. Also, I covered game stories on the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Single A Baseball Affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. In my two months there, I wrote 40 sports stories on an average of three stories per week.

At Voices, I reported on news stories throughout the Centre County area, ranging from education to environmental issues. I wrote at least one story per monthly issue while contributing story ideas to weekly staff meetings.

My dream is to cover professional and college sports. However, I am willing to write regular news stories since they play important roles in our daily lives. Also, I am flexible to move to any part of the country. I hope that a newspaper will give me the chance to make a difference in the sports and news world.