Category: Portfolio

Today, I published a story I wrote about a group of communication students and alumni who are working on a special film project to educate local youth about HIV and AIDS.

Here is the story’s first four graphs:

A scene opens with the dialogue: “And, where are you supposed to be going — I thought you were hanging with me today?”

The questions come from a concerned aunt, standing between her niece and the door, arms crossed and defiant. It’s a scene from a new series of videos called Caught Off Guard that 17 students from the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication are working on to promote HIV education and STD awareness to high school students in Houston.

In the scene, the niece explains it’s the two-month anniversary of her relationship with her boyfriend — and they’re going to celebrate. Alone. The aunt moves closer, her defiance transforms into concern, and she embraces her niece. “Ashley, and are you OK with that?”

The “Aunt Tamika” character is played by Ameka Jackson, a UH-Downtown psychology student. The character’s name is a play off of the name of Caught Off Guard writer and director Tamecia Henderson, a media production major and business management minor who is gaining real-world experience in the film industry between classes and coursework.

Today, a story I wrote about Psychology professor Julia Babcock was published to the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences website.

The story is part of the ongoing Faculty Spotlight series. I also took the photo of Dr. Babcock that accompanies the story.

Here is the first two graphs from the article:

Psychology professor Dr. Julia Babcock said she wishes she knew how to end domestic violence; for the past 13 years she has researched and instructed courses about the subject at UH. As co-director of The Center for Couples Therapy, she guides graduate students in the process of assessing couples who may be at risk, and Babcock believes that what lawmakers are currently doing is not working.

“I wish I knew how to end domestic violence,” Babcock said. “I think the answer is a lot of education and prevention. We’ve done some research to show that the existing treatments that we have that are often mandated by the states aren’t very effective. I’m beginning to think that early intervention and prevention is maybe the way to go. That means intervening with at-risk couples early on … I think that those kinds of interventions that decrease harmful fights are also likely to decrease and prevent domestic violence.”

Today, a story I wrote was published on the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences website about two African American Studies students who have created a new non-profit organization to benefit schoolchildren in Ghana.

The story is part of the ongoing Student Spotlight series. I also took the photo that accompanies the story.

Here are the first three graphs from the article:

It was a comment made by a school administrator in Ghana to a studying abroad group of UH African American Studies students that started it — the revelation that elementary school students in the African country drop out at an early age as a result of something as little as not having a pencil to do their work.

That single complaint frustrated Randryia Houston and Hannah McConn, two of the students who participated in the AAS Summer Study Abroad in Ghana trip that summer in 2009. A friend of theirs, Tiffany Lester — an English major and former president of the Resident Hall Association — came up with the idea that they should start a big school supply drive.

“When we got back, we were really frustrated,” McConn said. “We knew that we wanted to help the Ghanaian people in some way, but we didn’t really know how, and we kind of felt that as students, we didn’t have the means or revenue to do so in a huge way. So, she (Lester) suggested we just start with pencils.”