When I was 11 years old I made the decision to become a journalist. I took speech and drama classes so I could develop a better TV presence, and routinely practiced the intro to the KOB channel 4 News. “Live, local, late breaking, this is Eyewitness News 4, today at 10.”
After a tragic graduation speech in 2012, when no one laughed at my, “how about that ride in” joke, I knew I shouldn’t be allowed to speak to the masses ever again. I was three months away from attending journalism school, so being the lazy daisy that I am I simply switched my focus to writing. Turns out that is one of the better decisions I’ve ever made.
I’ve sincerely fallen in love with telling people’s stories, and giving a voice to those who aren’t heard. As a proud Latina I have a special place in my heart for sharing migrant stories, and after studying transborder topics in college, I’ve become fixated on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Border economics has been my emphasis this past year, and I plan on reporting more of those stories to share with you. The U.S.-Mexico border plays a significant and critical role in our economy, but in what ways? This semester I’ll be covering the impacts of cattle, labor, and medical tourism along the Arizona border, and the complex ways these play into our nation’s economy every single day. Whether they’re ranchers or pharmacy owners, these people have their own story to tell, and I hope to bring those stories to you.
Mykaela Aguilar is a senior at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, with a focus on print media and a minor in Transborder Studies. She has covered national and state immigration policy, as well as reported on international migration in Central and North America. Her stories include Foreigners seek new lives in Nicaragua and One step at a Time. This semester she will be covering border economics of Arizona and Mexico.
Just reading this makes me happy and gives me some hope for a better future for folks. Migrant stories are so varied, thrilling, tragic, scary, wonderful, miraculous- well, they’re everything that human stories are, and I’m delighted to hear that you want to tell them! Carry on.