Ask anyone in Emerson College’s Journalism Department why they’re here and you’re likely to receive a few different answers: the facilities, the faculty, the opportunities, etc.
Take any one of those answers and they boil down to essentially the same reason. Emerson College offers one of the best Journalism programs in the country.
Given that answer, it’s no surprise that many of our students and alumni have taken full advantage of their time here to help cement a strong start in the field of news telling.
Enter Daniela Jusino, a 2016 Master of Arts grad in Emerson’s Graduate Journalism program, our latest example of Emerson excellence in the field.
Daniela has risen through the ranks of her career starting as a Video Production Intern at the Boston Herald to her current role as the Digital Executive Producer at KATU News in Portland, Oregon.
We recently caught up with Daniela to learn more about her time at Emerson College, what her first steps after graduation looked like, and how she is feeling since being promoted to her new role at KATU in December.
What originally drew you to Emerson College as a Grad Student?
Daniela: “It has always been my dream to study Journalism at Emerson simply because of its reputation. I received my undergraduate degree at a state school and while I loved it, they didn’t have a Journalism program there. So, I had to learn what I could from an English major in college. I knew there was still so much to learn, especially when I wanted to pursue a career in news. So, I quit my full-time job in Florida and moved to Boston when I was accepted into the Master’s program.”
What was your student experience at Emerson like? Were you involved with any on-campus organizations?
“Being part of the Master’s program was a club in itself. Our classes were small and everyone within the program knew each other. We typically worked on projects together, studied together, spent writing and editing time together and hung out after classes together.
Also, I was a Journalism Department assistant, on top of some side jobs I had running social media accounts, which kept me pretty busy. I also still keep in touch with all of my Emerson best friends from my program.”
Can you think of one defining moment you had while in school?
“Prior to going back to get my Master’s, my job experience was all in social media, and I was hoping to transition into more news opportunities. I think I realized in my multimedia specific classes that just because my experience was in one specific area, didn’t mean that I couldn’t find my niche in the news world. This is why I decided to pursue a career in running digital for news, merging my expertise with both.”
Were you in touch with Emerson’s Career Development Center while you were here?
“Yes! Actually, the career center put me in contact with the recruiter for my current company. I did a skype interview that was arranged by the career center with Kevin Olivas from Sinclair and he helped get me my first news job in Oregon. And I’ve continued to grow within Sinclair ever since.”
What were your first steps after graduation?
“Everything moved pretty quickly! I started interviewing in the last few weeks of the semester and I was offered a job at KTVL-TV in Medford, Oregon 2 days after graduation. After that, I had two weeks to move my whole live from Boston (with a pit stop in Florida) to southern Oregon. It was a whirlwind, but I’ve come to realize it is a huge part of the news life, since I have since moved across the country several times over the years.”
What were some of the challenges you faced early in your post-grad experience?
“Moving to a whole new place – that I had never even been to! I had never been to
Oregon and now I was in a small market in southern Oregon (4 hours from Portland, 5
hours from San Francisco) across the country from most of my friends and family. The good news is that a small-town market is like a close-knit family and like my Emerson friends, I am still really close with my friends from my first market.”
What does your day to day at the station look like?
“In news, every day is truly different. It’s a mix between checking analytics and keeping the newsroom in the loop on top trending stories. There’s always going to be different kind of news breaking that we need to cover and write up for the website.
On top of that, keeping an eye on our site, maximizing the web experience for news readers is a big job that keeps you busy. Can this headline be re-written? Should it be the top story? What are people currently clicking on the most? Digital news is a lot of trial and error, but it’s how we learn from those results that matter.”
What are some of your next steps career-wise?
Right now, we’re just trying to get through the holidays and all the vacations. I just started this new role before the end of the year so we are still making plans and setting our goals for 2020. Sidebar: we are hiring a Social Media Manager so if you are interested in joining my team, let me know!
Do you have any advice for current students?
Take advantage of every single resource you have! You hear it a lot and I know that you might be busy and there might not be time, but you truly have so many resources at Emerson. Every single program that is installed on Emerson computers costs money anywhere else! Take advantage and teach yourself Photoshop and other valuable programs. Use the career center, ask about job fairs (I went to a lot of them!), ask about visiting speakers from organizations you admire, update your LinkedIn with details of your work, creative projects and use it to apply and reach out about jobs you like. It’s still a great resource I use today.”
