Connelly Intern At FJN For Summer

My name is Reagan Connelly and I am the summer intern here at The Fairbury Journal-News.I grew up in Panama, Nebraska in a Catholic family of 16. My dad worked for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services. When I was very young he worked for the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln. He was promoted to Captain in 2006 when I was four and was moved to Tecumseh State Correctional Institution where he worked for the majority of my childhood. In 2017 when I was 15, my dad was promoted again to Agency Intelligence Administrator and was moved to Central Office in Lincoln.He continued to work at Central office until his retirement in 2020. He is currently pursuing his masters in Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha.My mom has a masters in Political Science but was a stay-at-home mom who worked as Post Master Recovery at the Panama Post Office until I was 11 when she became Post Master. She worked full time for a few years but quit when the job began to demand that she spend a majority of her time away from home and thus away from her duties as a mother.My 13 siblings and I were all home schooled throughout elementary school and junior high. While I was home schooled my mom discovered my passion for writing and History and thus crafted my education to be largely focused on these areas.In 2016 I started high school at Freeman Public Schools where I participated in Choir, One-Act, Speech, Track, National Honor Society and Yearbook. In High School I discovered a YouTuber named Sydney Watson. Watson is a Journalist and Political Commentator. Fascinated by her videos I decided I wanted to do something similar.In April of 2020 when my school closed down due to Covid-19 I moved to Auburn to live with my older sister and my older brother.In July of that same year I graduated eighth in my class. After graduation I continued to live with my sister and work at Sonic in Auburn.When the school year started in August of that year I moved to Wayne to live on campus while I attended school there. My first semester in college I studied Journalism and minored in Criminal Justice in hopes of becoming a prison correspondent for a newspaper.While attending school in Wayne I worked for the Wayne Stater as a writer. My second semester I was hired by the same newspaper to be a photographer, print editor and online editor in addition to writing.However, throughout that time I realized it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. Around this time I began listening to a Political Commentator named Ben Shapiro. With the combined influence of Sydney Watson and Ben Shapiro I realized that was what I wanted to do.My second semester of college I shifted my focus and changed my major to Electronic Journalism and my minor to Political Science.By the time I finished my Freshman year I had decided WSC wasn’t a good fit for me. I moved back to Auburn to live with my sister that summer and applied to Peru State College.The summer of 2021 I began working for the Voice Newspaper mostly doing freelance work to fill in gaps in their staff. I also began working at the Auburn Memorial Library.In the fall of 2021 I got a third job at the after school program at Calvert Elementary School in Auburn. I also began school at PSC as a Marketing major with a minor in Political Science and Journalism. PSC doesn’t offer Journalism or Political Science as a major so I settled on marketing in the hopes that I could learn to market and build my own podcast company similar to Shapiro’s company, The Daily Wire.By the end of my first semester at PSC I had decided yet again my major wasn’t a good fit. I’m very bad at math and the dry business world wasn’t compatible with my vivacious personality. So yet again I began to change my major. This time I began the process of submitting a proposal for an Interdisciplinary Studies Major.This is a program in which a student can build his own major out of classes offered by the school to better match his educational goals. I crafted mine into a Political Journalism Major and have been content in this field, which brings me to where I am currently.Besides school I enjoy crocheting, creative writing, hiking, camping, drawing, photography, cooking, listening to music and reading.My favorite musical artists include, Il Volo, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Alexander Rybak, Raelynn, Suzzy Boggus and Taylor Swift.My favorite books are The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.I have a one-year-old cat named Jean Louise Finch, or Scout for short, after the protagonist in To Kill a Mockingbird.My favorite eras are the Victorian era, the 40s, 50s and 80s.I still love theatre and hope to get involved with the Peru State Theatre Company this fall.I still work at the Auburn Memorial Library and will begin working for the Peru State College Newspaper and the Peru State College Tutoring Center in the fall.

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