Graduating Senior Spotlight: Q&A with Amirah Razman

What brought you to the University of Minnesota and how did you end up choosing your major(s) and minor(s)?

Since I’m from the suburbs, I already call myself a city girl. It was only right for me to attend the biggest in-state university in the state’s biggest city. I am fortunate that my hometown is only 30 minutes away, so being in the U was a good mix of being away from home while also being close to home (admittedly, I also didn’t want to move out-of-state). I knew my calling was in journalism from the start — from a young age, I was watching the news and often telling friends and family what was happening in the news (I was a walking news anchor, essentially). Combine that with my love for writing and you get a journalism major. I love that I have the ability to tell other people’s stories– it’s something that is most important to me. I don’t want people to live in a box — I want people to be informed about what is happening around them, since a lot of things that happen in the world are important and often do affect them or their loved ones!

What course would you recommend for other students in your major? And for students outside of your major, what course would be a good introduction to what you study?

For journalism students, I would recommend taking the community journalism practicum with Gayle Golden (G.G.). It’s an amazing way to get hands-on experience while being in a classroom environment. You get to work with your peers on a semester-long project (in a form of a published website) about covering an underrepresented group on campus (this semester, my class wrote stories about first-generation students). It’s a great way to learn about how to report on underrepresented groups and working as a team in a newsroom environment. For non-journalism students, I would recommend taking Media and Popular Culture. This is a good course to take for consumers of media (which is all of us, let’s be real) and the pop culture enthusiasts because you get to explore how technology has advanced to the point where news can be consumed in various ways. As a journalist, you need to be able to adapt to various ways of storytelling, and this class will help you examine the links between storytelling with different media forms.

What do you wish more people understood about what you study?

I get this a lot from people I meet on campus — “You’re a journalism major? I could never write so much/I suck at writing, so that’s amazing that you can write!” Journalism is not just writing. Yes, there are reporters who write articles (which is what I do), but journalism is more than writing — there’s also the photojournalists, the visual journalists, editors, broadcast journalists, magazine writers, and more, and we are all just as passionate about our work! The thing about journalism is that it’s so versatile — writing doesn’t need to be your strongest suit, but if you have a passion for video editing, social media, content creation, you have a place in journalism - and everyone in Hubbard is so supportive!

What is your dream job? How is your liberal arts education helping you reach your post-graduation goals?

My dream job is to be a reporter at a news outlet – I’d love to go work for the big media outlets one day, but I know this industry is a lot of baby steps, so I’d be grateful to work at any news station! I love reporting on social issues and doing features. I also want to do some kind of reporting, content creation, or editorial job with a sports team – I’ve loved sports from a young age, so being a part of sports would be a dream come true! My liberal arts education has helped me get my internship opportunities and helped me explore a variety of possibilities. It’s allowed me to keep an open mind about all the possibilities that exist within journalism and media – and to have an open mind about the world. If it weren’t for my liberal arts education, I wouldn’t have worked for the Minnesota Daily or at any of my internships and I don’t think I would’ve gotten any closer to my dreams. 

If you had the world's attention for 30 seconds, what would you say?

Women belong in sports! It’s no longer a man’s thing – women are quickly taking over the sports landscape, and we should be embracing and celebrating female athletes’ accomplishments! Women can play sports and watch sports – both men’s and women’s sports – we do not need to “list 5 players” or do anything to prove ourselves otherwise!