Erin Wooddell

Hometown: Green Bank, W.Va.
Status: Senior
Major: News Editorial
Role: Student Journalist/Multimedia Trainer

“My family is from West Virginia and I am looking forward to learning more about the culture and the people. This project gives me the opportunity to not only learn about the state, but to tell the stories to a larger audience.”

Q: How did you get involved with the project?
A: Professor Temple asked me to join the class. I knew it would be a really great opportunity to learn more about new media and to cover the untold stories of the state.

Q: Where do you hope to go after graduation and where do you see yourself in 5 years?
A: May 2009 graduation leaves a lot of unknowns, but I hope to move to a major city and work as a writer or a publicist. In five years I would love to sell my first New York Times Best-Selling novel and pass my time freelancing for major magazines. A girl can dream.

Q: What work experience do you have?
A: Since sophomore year I have freelanced for the Dominion Post’s Campus Life, Lifestyle and News sections. In the summer of 2007 I was able to study abroad in London and intern at two magazines—The London Magazine and Eventing. It was such a great experience and I learned so much about myself and about magazine journalism. This past summer, I worked on a documentary in L.A. and Vegas about harmful antibiotics, called “Certain Adverse Events.” We just had the east coast screening and it was exciting to see the final product.

Q: What’s your favorite website?
A: Yahoo. I know it’s ordinary, but my email is there as well as the weather, news, sports, entertainment gossip and horoscopes. It’s a one-stop shop.

Q: What’s your favorite quote?
A: I have two:
“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.” ~Coco Chanel
And: “home is where the heart is.”

Fun Fact:
A: When I was little, I would be so desperate to write something – anything – that I would copy articles from the encyclopedia, and other books, word for word. Then when I was older, I learned that I could write my own stories.