Junior Andraea Aguilera aspires to pave her own way in journalism though magazine writing and social media guidance for nonprofit organizations.
Aguilera is a journalism major at University of Central Arkansas with a communication minor. Through a non-traditional style of the college system, Aguilera has completed hours at both UCA and University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, with only a slight change to her degree name.
While at UAFS, she studied mostly media based journalism, and was set to major in media communication, which adapted to journalism with an emphasis on online journalism at UCA.
Aguilera said, “that was one of the main reasons I wanted to be back at UCA because I just loved journalism and I had to kind of compromise for that.”
Aguilera took a semester off in between the college transfer, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
During her time off, she applied for UCA as a readmit student and has been back enjoying school ever since.
With dreams of getting a job out of the state, Aguilera also realizes the potential to earn experience and save money while in Arkansas for now.
“Growing up, I dreamed of working for like 17 [Magazine] or like Teen Vogue kind of magazine,” Aguilera said. “Now that I'm older, I would still love to work for a magazine, but I kind of want to work for something that's less superficial.”
Aguilera continued to discuss where she sees herself going in the future through journalism.
“My ultimate dream goal would be to do social media for nonprofits,” Aguilera said. “I'd love to work for the adoption and foster care system for nonprofits and kind of advocate for those kids.”
Aguilera has always been motivated to finish college, and has never even considered the option of not going to school.
She finds motivation now through her father, who is from Mexico and pushes her along with her siblings to strive for the best they can be.
“He wants us to go to school, have a better future, you know, be able to make more money to do things that we love,” Aguilera said. “So that's a big motivation for me. I just kind of want to make him proud and myself proud.”
Outside of school, Aguilera likes to spend time watching cartoons with her boyfriend, who she is actively trying to get to match her love for the outdoors.
She also likes learning new cooking skills, going to new places, and strolling through Target with her friends.
In 2013, Aguilera traveled through Europe and visited places in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
After the pandemic, Aguilera said, “I would love to do more international traveling. I just love trying new things and I love to experience different cultures.”
Aguilera also discussed the need for attention to be shed on the Black Lives Matter movement, especially during the ongoing George Floyd case.
“[BLM] is still a relevant topic. It's not about all lives matter.You know, all lives don't matter until black lives matter.”
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