My ambition to help people in need first started to form when I conducted research on child soldiers in 2015. This passion continued to grow throughout my time at Longwood University, where I have explored ways that I could help people on campus and after I graduate. I worked at the campus newspaper, The Rotunda, for six months where I gained relationships with valuable members of the college and local communities, learning about some of the issues that plagued the community. Afterwards, I began exploring careers where I could work to use communication to better people’s lives, which led me to gain an interest in disaster and humanitarian response.
The idea of working in disaster management feels exciting to me, as I would be devoting my time and energy in helping those prepare and respond to disasters. Communication is extremely important where disasters are concerned as every second could mean whether someone lives or dies, so communicating effective response and aid to a disaster is critical. While disaster cannot be avoided, I hope to save lives and create better response strategies within the disaster management field.