My first story in the Gainesville Sun this semester landed on the front page! It’s about a community that needs help and a resource center that just opened to serve it called SWAG.

SWAG center tackling dilemmas facing southwest Gainesville’s poor

Looking back, I would’ve loved to spend more time at the center getting to know the people there, so I could tell the story through their eyes as a series of four of five vignettes. That didn’t fly with the Sun’s editors, and I ran out of time. But it’s ok. I still got a byline on a front-page centerpiece, and it looks wonderful with the photos and graphics.

As the reporter I’m shadowing, Morgan Watkins, told me, “You gave the front page of the Sun some much-needed SWAG today.”