When Andrea was interviewing to be a reporter at one of Denver's television stations, the man who would soon become her boss asked her if she had hit a fork in the road, deciding to take the path toward broadcast journalism. So diverse was her background, documented in the pile of resumes, biographies, print articles, and letters of recommendation, that it seemed she had literally walked away from one life in order to pursue another. His perceptions were accurate!
While all of Andrea's high school friends picked careers as they neared the end of their college years, immediately jumping into jobs that commanded uniforms or suits, Andrea wasn't in any rush to begin a career--partly because other passions were tugging at her, pleading for her to experience them so that she may better determine exactly what she wanted to do with her life. She indulged those passions. Her first calling was to try and do something she'd always wanted to do--work with wildlife. Andrea moved from her hometown Colorado Springs to Texas shortly after graduation to live with a friend, and weeks after that move, became a volunteer with a wildlife rescue organization just outside of San Antonio. It only took managers weeks to decide they wanted her as an employee, and so the next two years of her life were spent rescuing injured and orphaned wild animals, caring for them, and educating the public about how to better co-exist with wild animals. She taught people how to help them when they were hurt or trapped. Andrea also had the opportunity to work with exotic animals like Jaguars, tropical birds, and various primates who were victims of the exotic pet trade. She soon became no stranger to mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, and bears. This wasn't just a fun fling for Andrea. She immersed herself in the issues and conflicts surrounding wild animals, becoming enough of an expert in two years to publish a book on how to co-exist with wildlife. But it also took those two years to help Andrea decide what she really wanted to do with her life. Despite criticism for "goofing around," Andrea was able to satisfy a dream, and satisfying that dream is what enabled her to walk away from it, content and confident about what she wanted to do next. She wanted to become a journalist.
Andrea was accepted into a prestigious journalism program at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada where she specialized in print journalism. But, true to her character, she couldn't decide if she wanted to be a print journalist or a broadcast journalist. She was the only one in the class of 18 people to do an internship in three different mediums: radio, television, and print. Unable to let go of her love for videography, she was able to break into the world of broadcast television using a tape she made while doing an internship at a Colorado Springs TV station when she was home for Christmas break. It was perfect, she thought. This way, she could satisfy her desires to be in broadcast, and yet continue to freelance print pieces for magazines and newspapers on the side. That's exactly what she did, gaining more expertise on specific subjects along the way. For example, during her first TV job in a small Colorado town, she fell in love with firefighting. She enrolled in a fire academy put on by the local fire department where she had been doing ride-along's, attending night classes after work for three months until it was finally time to take the test! She passed, becoming a state certified firefighter. She went on to get her red card--a certification that qualified her as a wildland firefighter, educated and certified to fight fires on federal lands. This gave her the tools to write articles on fire safety and fire-related issues.
Andrea wrote about things related to her newly-acquired expertise while working as a broadcast reporter--stories often kept her up past midnight as she worked on them in her off time. She also wrote more extensive versions of stories that she covered while working as a TV reporter over the years.
Fast forward to today, and Andrea's attitude about expertise and specialties has changed dramatically. After working for a Denver TV station for ten years, she realized that every single day demanded that she become an expert on one thing or another, or at least enough of an expert to portray authority and command respect each and every time she went live in a newscast. She realized that not knowing anything about an assigned subject wasn't an obstacle or a reason not to cover it. All she needed to do was become enough of an expert by the day's end to give the viewers the information they needed and wanted, leaving them satisfied that she had answered their questions and brought them insight. And when she couldn't answer all of their questions, she could at least point them in a direction where they could learn more about the topic or issue at hand on their own.
So, while her "specialties" might be on pets, horses, wildlife, firefighting, fire mitigation, gardening, and (the latest) the art of pressing flowers, she's up for writing about most any topic. Years of looming deadlines have taught her how to become an excellent researcher. You need only to tell her what you want to know and convey, and she'll deliver the answers--in a clear, concise, and colorful way!
Andrea has a broad range of interests that include riding horses (English hunter/jumper discipline), gardening, creating pressed flower art, archery, children's literature, creative non-fiction, and photography.
Andrea received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley where she was a Mass Communications major, and a member of the Taekwondo team. Her strong interests outside of her degree included French, and print journalism.
A few years after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Andrea went on to get her Master's Degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. This was an elite program that only accepted 18 students a year, and those students had to be proficient in French (since Quebec is a French-speaking province). Students had the choice to specialize in either print or broadcast journalism. Andrea chose to specialize in print, and was the most-published student in the program after the year was up. Students were required to spend a month at an internship of their choice. Andrea went to work for the Kingston Whig-Standard in Ontario, collecting several bylines while she was there. But in order to diversify her skill set, she also did internships in radio and television during her one year at Concordia, and shot video for the broadcast students whenever possible. She was the only student to complete internships in all three disciplines (radio, print, and TV). Andrea used her experience during a one-month internship at a television station to create a demo tape, which she used to break into the world of broadcast journalism. She was hired at a small television station in Montrose, Colorado a couple of weeks after returning home from Canada. Her move to work in television was a strategic one. Andrea realized that she could work toward becoming a professional and well-respected TV reporter, and still write the print articles that she loved if she structured her future in this order. So, that is what she did for 17 years--she worked in TV, and freelanced on the side for countless magazines and newspapers, building up a thick portfolio of print pieces over the course of 17 years. By doing this, she could essentially still do both (as she always found it hard to choose just one thing she was interested in). Freelancing in television while working at a newspaper or magazine wasn't a viable option. She chose the path she did as a way to make herself more versatile and marketable, and is now considered a professional in both fields.
Andrea has written countless articles on wildlife and how to co-exist with wildlife. She spent two years managing a wildlife sanctuary outside of San Antonio, Texas where she helped injured and orphaned wildlife, as well as exotic ex-pets like jaguars, mountain lions, and bears. She published a book to help people learn how to co-exist with wild animals, and how to humanely deal with wildlife problems. Below is a news story that was turned into an article; it has to do with the growing problem of oil and gas drilling disrupting Colorado's wildlife population.
Andrea has a love for animals, and has a great deal of experience with them. She worked at her neighborhood veterinary clinic for six years while she was a teenager, and was part of the medical team at a wildlife sanctuary in Texas where she worked for two years. She was a television reporter for 17 years, and found many opportunities to do stories on pets and pet care. She currently has two cats and three horses. The piece below is part of an article that she's working on about hind end paralysis in cats.
Although the bulk of Andrea's writing has had to do with gardening, wildlife, and pets, during her 17 years as a television reporter she wrote countless articles on a variety of other topics. Reporters are expected to become experts on any given subject on any given day, making her realize that she was not limited to subjects that she was personally familiar with. Her experience as a TV reporter made her realize that she fit the phrase: "Jack of all trades, master of none." The point is, no matter the topic or assignment, Andrea is confident she can research and produce the information and content necessary to meeting the objective and give the readers what they need and want. She developed excellent research skills during her years as a reporter, and has decided that there are no limits to what she can write about. Below is an excerpt from a book she is working on about her experiences as a television reporter.
Andrea has not only written several pieces on wildlife, she also writes about a variety of other subjects including gardening, pets, and anything else that might interest her. She has been involved in gardening and raising plants since she was a child. She worked at a veterinary clinic for six years, a part-time gig that began while she was in junior high school and continued through her college years as she would fill in at her neighborhood vet clinic when she came come from school. Andrea was a docent at the county parks department in her home town, learning all about the local flora and fauna and relaying that information to the public through nature walks and display copy. Andrea is also an equestrian. She has been riding for the past 25 years and currently has three horses of her own, one of which she is training herself. This piece is an article on horse care.
Andrea has published one book on how to co-exist with wildlife. She is currently in the process of publishing another book on her most memorable experiences and stories during her 17 years as a television reporter. This sample is an excerpt from her book.