I’ve always been a writer. Ever since I was really little I had all of these ideas that I would write out constantly in the form of short stories. When I was in high school I got to try my hand at journalism and I decided to pursue it further. I’ve always wanted to do something I loved and writing was that one thing I could never get away from.
Current work:
I was a staff writer for The Prince George’s Sentinel for a year and a half. In that role, I have written about news, politics, entertainment, crime and events throughout Prince George’s County, Maryland. I also proofread the entire paper each week. I was also responsible for uploading every story from both papers to each website and posting all of the stories for both papers on Facebook and Twitter throughout the week.
Business:
I am the co-founder of an online literary magazine called Academy of the Heart and Mind where we accept fiction, poetry, nonfiction and art submissions worldwide and host contests. I designed our website using WordPress and am in charge of circulation and editing our submissions.
Past work experience:
Before working at The Prince George’s Sentinel, I was the contributing editor for Odyssey where I edited weekly articles from about 20 writers in the Towson community in addition to writing one story of my own each week.
I was a staff writer for The Towerlight newspaper for four years where I wrote for the Arts & Life section and had my own column for a short time.
I worked at CohnReznick in Baltimore where I proofread financial documents for grammar and style.
I did internships at the Chesapeake Bay Magazine where I wrote articles, took pictures and edited the monthly magazine issues, and another at Alejo Media where I was a production assistant and created the company’s first ever email newsletter.
Education:
I graduated in May 2018 from Towson University majoring in mass communications with a minor in creative writing.
My resume:
Jessica Ricks Journalism 