CRYSTAL M. GOSS

Walking through the humid Washington D.C. streets in the summer of 2007 is where I discovered I wanted to be a journalist. The city was alive with news of then Sen. Barack Obama shaking up the democratic race and possibly becoming the next president of the United States. I was there for a conference, where among other things, I participated in mock debates, met my state representatives and toured D.C. I don't know what specifically it was about that trip and about those streets (the conference focused on politics and had nothing to do with journalism), but I vividly remember leaving the Library of Congress and feeling I would be back there one day, not as a politician, but as a news storyteller. From that day, I knew a job in journalism would be in my future.