Stephanie Sandoval

Stephanie Sandoval is a sophomore attending the Missouri School of Journalism who is pursuing her bachelor's in broadcast Journalism. Because of her love for theatrical arts she is also minoring in theater performance. On her spare time, she enjoys reading biographies and taking photos with her DSLR camera. She also works at KOMU-TV in Columbia where she takes on multiple responsibilities for news and production respectively. On campus she is involved with COMO Know, a newly developing newsletter, that started this year where she is a weekly photographer and writer.

She was born and raised in Anaheim, California but moved to Missouri at the age of ten and has lived in Columbia ever since. She attended Hickman High School (famously known for their mascot - the Kewpie). In high school she enrolled in journalistic writing and yearbook courses. During her senior year, she was editor-in-chief of the school yearbook. Yearbook is where her love for journalism began and has grown ever since then.

As a journalist, she takes her work very seriously and is up for learning new things about the professional world. She is always excited to learn new things in a newsroom setting and never steps down from a challenge.

Stories by Stephanie Sandoval in 2016 include:

Stephanie Sandoval's Tweets @MDNnews in 2016

01/20/2016: Senator Nasheed upset Nixon failed to speak out on the violence in Missouri http://bit.ly/1QnAX5l
01/27/2016: Missouri lawmakers hear bill that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. http://bit.ly/1VsTLzJ
02/03/2016: Missouri legislators hear a proposal to make it easier for women to get birth control pills. http://bit.ly/1o82eOl
03/09/2016: Committee hears bill that would allow governing boards to offer graduate degree programs http://bit.ly/1YzLUSY
03/16/2016: Missouri's Senate argued for an hour on whether to cut school teacher retirement benefits. http://bit.ly/1QZrOi6

Stephanie Sandoval's Blog in 2016
Recording radio stories

Posted 03/02/2016:

Recording my voice has always been a struggle for me. It takes me around 12 times to record a good sound bite. I just don't like my voice. When I'm hearing myself I always think 'I can do better' or 'I should have emphasized this word or said it in this tone of voice'. Needless to say, I still need to get better at recording radio pieces. I also have noticed that if I'm saying a lot of words that start with the letter 'S' it will sound like I have a lisp, which in broadcast you don't want that, so I have to really push myself to sound out each and every letter.

Some stories take longer to record than others. Once though, I did record a story in one take-- I was pretty proud of myself. Names have also been an issue. I have such a hard time pronouncing names correctly. I've had to rerecord once because I realized I've been saying a person's name wrong the entire time (and I was on the last story recording-- oh, the agony). Because I take long to record I usually end up staying in the newsroom longer than I probably should. But hopefully I'll get better at it. I'm always judging my voice and I should probably stop doing that. I remember when I first started recording radio stories that I would forget to turn the mic on and off again. Lesson learned.

Welcome to my first blog of the semester! Here's what I've learned so far. Posted 02/24/2016:

This week was a little bit depressing. I got assigned the Ameren and Noranda story, which I was excited about, but it didn't go as planned. I tried contacting sources that Phill recommended, but no one called me back or emailed me back. That was a reality check... you might have to call 30 people before one calls you back.

One big thing I've learned is just getting lawmakers to talk to you. There's a right way and then there's a wrong way. If you go to their office directly their secretary will probably end up telling you that their schedule is full, which is true they are busy people. It's better if you go seek them out on the house floor or senate floor. Most people will want to talk, but this week felt like no one wanted to talk. I feel like I should have talked to people from Ameren and then ask them which lawmakers they have reached out to and then try to seek those people out. Or I should probably start calling their office beforehand and request an interview. Maybe check the day folder and see what needs to be covered that day and set up interview times (does this seem like a good idea or no?).

Oh, then I got to sit in on a house meeting... there were some interesting bills that got passed.