{"id":72737,"date":"2019-08-26T10:55:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T14:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=72737"},"modified":"2022-09-28T09:30:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T13:30:04","slug":"press-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2019\/08\/26\/press-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Press run"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

2019 Wright State graduate Lucas Gonzalez channels passion for politics and storytelling into a promising journalism career. (Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

Journalism wasn\u2019t really on his radar when he arrived at Wright State University. Lucas Gonzalez started out in the Motion Pictures Program and gravitated to political science before working as an editor at The Guardian student newspaper.<\/p>\n

Today, the 2019 graduate is working as a reporter at The Daily Times in Salisbury, Maryland, which is part of the USA Today Network of newspapers and is in the shadow of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working for a newspaper that has a very positive reputation and is a very recognizable brand,\u201d said Gonzalez. \u201cI think that is phenomenal as a first, full-time job. A lot of people can\u2019t say that, and I\u2019m really fortunate and blessed to have gotten the offer. I\u2019m ecstatic about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times covers Salisbury and its surrounding area, Ocean City, the Delaware beaches and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Gonzalez reports on breaking and trending news, including crime, fire and weather stories. He also works on longer-term politics and features projects.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez\u2019 goal is to write some front-page stories and hone his investigative skills. He says he has always been attracted to investigative-type reporting.<\/p>\n

“Truth is a value which I consider to be of the utmost importance,\u201d he said. \u201cAs a journalist, I hope to be a messenger of truth.”<\/p>\n

Gonzalez grew up in the small northwestern Ohio city of Wauseon. His father works in financial aid at the University of Toledo and his mother teaches high school Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents brought me up right,\u201d said Gonzalez. \u201cI owe a lot to them, teaching me a lot of life lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he wanted to escape the small-town confines of Wauseon. So after graduating in 2015 from Ayersville High School in nearby Defiance, he enrolled at Wright State, attracted by the university\u2019s prestigious Motion Pictures Program.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez had become interested in film as a career by just watching movies. He took a special interest in classic films and foreign cinema from countries including Japan, Sweden, France, Italy, Germany and many Latin American countries. He was inspired by the works of Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ultimately decided that I wanted to get a hands-on experience with the so-called magic of movie-making,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

So he jumped into the Motion Pictures Program with the idea of becoming a producer or director. His first job at Wright State was with the video production crew that live-streamed sporting events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat got me some pretty good experience at working under pressure,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I obviously got some camera experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lucas Gonzalez served as news editor of The Guardian student newspaper, writing three news stories a week.<\/p><\/div>\n

Gonzalez enjoyed his classes but found he was slowly losing his passion for film production. What he did have a passion for was politics. So he switched his major to political science.<\/p>\n

Writing was one of Gonzalez\u2019 strengths, so when a classmate suggested he apply to The Guardian, he did. He worked there as news editor beginning in the fall of 2017, writing three news stories a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was pretty invaluable experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lee Hannah, assistant professor of political science, said he knew Gonzalez had a special talent after reading his first essay.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really made it seem effortless,\u201d said Hannah. \u201cThere were times when I’d read his work and think, \u2018Why couldn’t I think to articulate that concept in this way?\u2019 He’s one of those students you hope will stay in politics and journalism because he’ll make such a positive contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last summer, Gonzalez landed an internship with the Springfield News-Sun, where he reported and wrote local news and feature stories. It was there that he realized journalism was his calling.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, there is a certain satisfaction in seeing the final product. It\u2019s really gratifying to see that,\u201d he said. \u201cIn addition, I like the conversations I\u2019ve had with people. I\u2019ve always been a pretty inquisitive person so I guess it comes naturally to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez returned to the News-Sun as an intern earlier this year and was later hired part-time as the social content producer. He graduated from Wright State on May 4 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science<\/a> and started his new job at The Times a few weeks later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been truly blessed with some excellent mentors and connections at Wright State University. Without them I can\u2019t say for sure I would have been as successful as I am,\u201d he said. \u201cWright State University has been very good to me. It was challenging at times, but I\u2019ve really had the good fortune to meet some incredible people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2019 Wright State graduate Lucas Gonzalez channels passion for politics and storytelling into a promising journalism career. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":72765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4309,4299,725,747,715,4855],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-association","category-alumni-profile","category-home-news-sidebar","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-social-sciences-and-international-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72737"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72781,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72737\/revisions\/72781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}