What more can we say? At long last, it’s time to feature one of the premier admirers of JIMBO TIMES!
I first met Steph during a snowball fight in 2010 at a Leadership Retreat organized by the Cross Cultural Center of Pasadena City College. Over lunch and activities at the retreat we were happy to be friends, but when the hugs and high-fives came to an end, she and I both were on an all-out assault against each other on the snowfield.
Looking back at it now, it was a natural match: while neither of us had known the other person longer than two days, it didn’t matter; we took well to each other as rivals from the start and have enjoyed one-upping one another ever since.
After all, we’re both avid news junkies, long-time WWE fans, and rabid hip-hop aficionados. In other words, we both know a thing or two about braggadocio.
Even more true, however, is that in certain respects there’s simply no competition. For instance, when it comes to fact-checking and trivia, as Steph proudly shared with me for this article, one of her colleagues at a conference recently called her a “walking encyclopedia”, which I grudgingly can’t disagree with.
After all, it wasn’t all that long ago that Steph’s knowledge left me cold out of a job!
The year was 2010, and a mutual friend of ours had shared with me that there was an opening for a certain position with PCC’s transfer center. The right candidate would be friendly, knowledgeable, and apt at sharing their knowledge with prospective students and other visitors to campus.
For this, I can still recall the interview. A few days after applying online, I went into the transfer center and met with two representatives from the transfer center. Though I should have been on my A-game for the meeting, I decided to approach the interview non-nonchalantly, figuring that I could just cruise my way to the position. Wrong!
By contrast, Steph went into the interview determined to make her skills known, and I can imagine rather well how it went: like me, Steph has a tendency to overstate herself sometimes, although not in a way that’s off-putting, but in a way that’s actually more charming and endearing.
A few days later…Steph got the call, while I was left wondering what in the world I did wrong!
Of course, today the reason is clear: the walking encyclopedia rocked the house.
And though I may have been irked at the result at the time, today it’s safe to say that it was all for the best. After all, it was through her position at the transfer center that Steph learned about a wide array of out-of-state options for college. This was especially important information since it helped her avoid a defeat at my hands over a seat at one of our universities in California!
In 2012, then, when it came time to apply to schools Steph submitted her candidacy to places as far from home as Houston, San Antonio, New Mexico, and Arizona. Ultimately, she went with the Cronkite school of Journalism at Arizona State University in Phoenix, which she started at in the fall of that year.
Can you guess why she chose ASU?! I’ve got a good hunch: though school in Arizona is far from home in California, it’s not that far! That is, if she wanted to see her family, a seven or eight hour drive was more manageable than it would have been for some of the other schools.
Regardless of her exact reasoning, however, one thing is clear: Stephanie’s accomplishments as a Sun Devil throughout her two-and-a-half years at Phoenix has left no one second-guessing her decision. She’s worked on several journalism teams, gone on to conferences across the country, and met a wide array of household-name journalists and reporters from all over the field.
Currently, Steph is an integral component of Cronkite News, a five-day-a-week news broadcast at which she is serving until just before graduating this following Spring. But like a true go-getter, Steph’s going after yet more credentials at ASU while she’s got the chance. In fact, she has one more major conference that she’s currently fundraising for.
This coming December, the Associated Press Television and Radio Association is holding a two-day camp in Malibu where a number of prominent journalists will pair up with up-and-coming reporters like Stephanie for mentoring. The experience will serve as another major milestone for her and a number of her colleagues, and to find out about how you can support Steph’s trip there, she’s set set up the following page for donations.
And while Steph and I still might be old foes, I can’t help but endorse my ole friend for the money! The truth is: ever since our wicked snowball fight in the rocky mountains with the cross-cultural retreat, I’ve seen Steph grow into a trailblazer not only for her family, but for an entire community of fellow dreamers in L.A., Phoenix, and beyond! As such, it is both a pleasure and an honor to feature her on JIMBO TIMES!