Meet some of the new names around the Sentinel newsroom this summer.
Amanda Opitz
Amanda Opitz is a photojournalism major from Montana. She enjoys hiking, biking, camping, and not so surprisingly photography. She takes her responsibility as a journalist very seriously and finds telling people’s stories very rewarding. She hopes to work at a daily newspaper after graduating.
Jason Eisenberg
“This is Jason Eisenberg coming to you from the Santa Cruz Sentinel sports desk. I’m 22, graduated from UC Santa Cruz, and have been working here for about a year now as a part time editor as well as a writer for the occasional local gamer and a few feature pieces that include the tracking of a local hopeful Olympic cyclist, Shelley Olds. As far as aspirations go, I would love to be a regular sports columnist for a strong paper. I also enjoy writing entertainment pieces in my spare time which include a couple screenplays, some brain storming of T.V. shows, and I just recently started a blog that really doesn’t represent me, but more of an alter ego that I believe a lot of people identify with in this strange world.”
“My ideal life, which is probably identical to many, is to be a ‘Rockstar’ by night, and a writer by day. I’m in a fairly young band that plays shows in the Bay Area (San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland) and I would like to continue this trend of chasing two dreams for as long as possible.”
Joel Hersch
Traveling and writing are two things that define Joel’s life trajectory. Central to this was his coming of age during five years traveling around the world on a sail boat with his family. That formative experience sparked in Joel, a passion for telling stories and learning about far away places. Joel is now set to graduate from CSU Chico, where as a journalism major, he wrote for The Orion newspaper. He will also take a minor in Spanish language, a skill which he first acquired while world cruising and honed recently, during six months of study and travel throughout South America. Joel plans to continue working in the field of journalism with the aim to employ diverse media for travel and cultural story telling and reporting. Joel is currently interning as a staff writer at the Santa Cruz Sentinel in Northern California.
Mahdi Nuru
“I’m currently attending Georgia State University in Atlanta, and I’ll be going into my senior year this fall semester.”
“I’ve been working with the Sentinel for a month now and have gained valuable experience that I hope will serve as a foundation in the advancement of my career. I’ve written articles on various topics and want to continue working on different challenges to learn something new every day.”
Phil Carter
Phil Carter is a 4th year community studies major at UC Santa Cruz. A native of Oakland, CA he has spent the last three years studying social documentation at UCSC. Starting out as a self taught photographer while in high school at the age of 15, he has worked to become a professional freelance photographer in his time outside of school. Specializing in sports photography, Phil has had his work published worldwide in publications such as Sports Illustrated, ESPN the magazine and the Los Angeles Times.
When discussing some of his goals, Phil said:
“This summer during my time at the Sentinel my biggest goal is to expand upon my skills as a multimedia journalist. Working with photographs, video, audio and web technology as the online department intern, I think I will be able to gain valuable knowledge on the rapidly emerging technologies that are changing the face of journalism. As digital technology weaves its way deeper into our lives and into journalism, the way we disseminate information is also changing. Whether it be through video, audio, blogs, websites etc. I believe that the real world experience I will gain implementing these technologies at the Sentinel will help better prepare me for the future of media and journalism.”
