Sophie Spievak: From Santa Barbara to San Francisco and Back
Locally Raised USF Student Enjoys Her Summer Writing Internship
Sophie Spievak appreciates being born and raised in Santa Barbara, where her parents met at UCSB. But for her college experience, Spievak headed north to University of San Francisco. This summer, she was back in town, and she wrote a number of stories for the Independent as one of our interns.
Why did you pick USF?
The campus is right in the middle of San Francisco, which creates such a fun and exciting place to go to school and live. They were also one of the few schools that I was considering that offered any kind of journalism program. Additionally, USF is very focused on the idea of cura personalis, which is all about the development of the whole person rather than just academic learning. Classes start mid-August and while I wish it wasn’t all online, I have already been contacted by my professors to discuss the best ways to provide a beneficial, involved experience online, so I am still looking forward to my classes and the semester.
Are you interested in pursuing journalism as a career?
I started to think about journalism as a potential career path when I was 14 and have been working toward it ever since. I joined my high school newspaper, found a couple of mentors that could help me work toward being a journalist, and then joined my college newspaper before interning at the Independent. As of now, I want to go into investigative journalism and be able to travel as part of that job. I am taking my first journalism class this fall semester and am really excited to begin the formal education part of a journalism career after being able to get good experience this summer.
