COMMUNITY Below is Rheya’s speech she gave before receiving the award: There are moments in life when your purpose is highlighted, and this is one of them. I have over time narrowed my gravitation towards the many aspects of news and journalism to social issues. News encompasses social issues yes, but there is a deeper connection to finding the “ why” of a person’s beliefs, actions and heritage or ideals that come with it. It’s been a journey to understand the beauty of that. While in college at Arizona State’s Cronkite School of Journalism my professor, a former CNN reporter Aaron Brown thoroughly convinced me that I would be an investigative journalist; that THAT was the way of connection. Although some of you will go off to be fierce investigative journalist, I have learned I will not be one of them and I’m ok with that. My first job was a Multi Media Journalist. The journalists that literally do it all. If you take that route you will learn A LOT and also be exhausted. Willing to go wherever I needed to start my career I started off in a regressive and small part of Georgia called Albany. Here I would make lifelong friends, understand what it means to be a journalist of integrity and did I say exhausted? All. The. Time. This is also where I learned how important my representation was in the Newsroom. How much my community looked to me for integrity and for perspective. How much the color of my skin would be so relevant to some of my stories and withholding for others. I would continue through my journey in Georgia learning and pushing my boundaries on the ability to create and empathize with others around me. Every day was a challenge and nourishing and would fully play in to what I know now to be my responsibility as a journalist and a woman of color. Coming to Iowa, of course I received a warm welcome. And although I believe in the cultural perspectives of ALL people; I have found myself, in the last three years gravitating toward stories that reflect the aura of my homeland Los Angeles; Perspectives of versatility and diversity. Stories that can convey a perspective that I’ve felt in my own heart. Stories, that show you May 2019 The URBAN EXPERIENCE 17 the soul to a person, topic or problem you might have not even known existed. Out of all the negativity in the world we have to remember that people are beautiful. To me, it is a privilege and honor to understand the origins of someone’s passion or the “why” within cultural practices. This Community initiative is a blessing that I was trusted to turn into my own vision. It’s incredible to take a glimpse into community leaders’ passion while I follow my own. So, thank you so much for the recognition and for the validation; That I am exactly where I am supposed to be. That my perspective matters. I get to walk into a job that I love every single day hoping that I’m making a difference, hoping that my representation is inspiration for a little girl who looks like me looking at her tv screen. Hoping that my adversity is a gateway to a conversation that makes someone feel related to, so they can be open, and I can tell their story. Hoping that someone will really hear it. So, thank you, thank you for listening. Make sure to check Rheya out on KCCI news channel 8 on the morning and noon news.
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