By Andre Kar
When she was in her first year at UC Santa Barbara, English major Hannah George successfully landed a job with The Daily Nexus newspaper working as an Artsweek writer. After three years working for the paper in this position, the now-junior college student is working to become a professional journalist. “It’s the best feeling to transform my thoughts into words that everyone can read,” George said.
George’s passion for writing has always been driven by a desire to meet other people and foster new relationships. The Artsweek writer position has provided George with a platform to transform her creative imagination into journalistic writing.
Hannah George, a third-year English major at UCSB, Daily Nexus writer, and student at this year’s Loyola Marymount University’s summer screenwriting program. Photo by Andre Kar.
She attends a wide range of events, from cultural to social, on the school’s campus as well as in the Santa Barbara community. Last May, George wrote on the famous rap artist Lil Yachty when he hosted an interactive paint night with UCSB students via Zoom. She also covered a concert that took place on campus in March of 2019 featuring Boston’s underground indie-pop band Twen.
“The most rewarding aspect of this job is learning the behind-the-scenes work of news journalism,” George says. “Documenting concerts, reporting about a protest, or simply blogging your thoughts takes time, patience, and care. In many ways, this job makes me feel so powerful because the writing platform which I have been provided through this newspaper is so massive.”
The aspiring writer’s love for journalism began at her high school in Thousand Oaks, California when she was primarily interested in cinematography. Screenwriting and production writing sparked her interest in online blogging and several areas of journalism.
This led to her acceptance into Loyola Marymount University’s summer screenwriting program where she was able to work alongside other talented students from across the country. One was Jamie Rogers who worked collaboratively with George for 14 consecutive days to establish a profile of original screenplays.
“I truly enjoyed working alongside Hannah during our program in Los Angeles,” Rogers said. “Her specialty is creative writing—she does a fantastic job capturing any and all narratives and frankly, she can report about anything and make it sound compelling.”
One of George’s most memorable pieces was a 2019 article about scaring parents on Halloween. Showcasing George’s humor and quirky personality, the article outlines a list of six songs she believes parents will be terrified of hearing from their children’s phones. The story showed that George knows how to entertain an audience and exactly who to write for and speak to, say her campus journalism colleagues.
“Hannah’s biggest strength is definitely understanding and conceptualizing her target audiences,” said Neha Makkapati, an assistant Artsweek writer who works alongside George at the newspaper. “Her articles engage directly with the right people, whether that’s students at UCSB, the school’s faculty, parents, middle schoolers, you name it.”
Hannah George, a third-year English major now working towards becoming a professional journalist. Photo by Andre Kar.
George accredits much of her knowledge and foundational background to UCSB's Division of Humanities and Fine Arts. “ [The English Dept. course] Contemporary Literature was so helpful in teaching me about the different writing genres that exist and more so than that, I learned how the art of writing has changed over the decades,” George said. “Story and the Brain was another favorite [course] because it focuses specifically on the power of storytelling and its effects on the public.”
In the future, George plans to take more journalism classes offered by UC Santa Barbara’s Writing Program, such as Journalism and News Writing, and Magazine Writing. These classes have helped George develop her professional writing and publication skills, all of which she directly applied to her newspaper articles.
The Daily Nexus is just the beginning of George’s career working in news and journalism. She says one of her goals is to work with The Santa Barbara Independent, a newspaper covering the Santa Barbara and Goleta areas. “I encourage everyone to tap into their creative side and give journalism a try. It’s the best escape for me,” George said.
Andre Kar is a third-year communication major. He wrote this article for his Journalism for Web and Social Media course.