The Orange County Register

Shortly after graduating from college I began working as a stringer for one of Southern California’s largest newspapers, covering high school sports a couple times a week. I applied for a full-time position but didn’t end up getting it. Luckily, the editor thought highly enough of me that he recommended me for another open position. That’s how I ended up landing my first job, as a reporter working for the Register’s community-specific weekly papers.

The office I worked in covered an area of five cities with seven high schools, three of which I focused on in particular. I covered multiple games a week, tracked down interesting features, and broke news. In addition to writing for the weeklies, I contributed coverage to the flagship daily paper — which at the time was in a period of growth seeing the Register swell to be one of the largest newspapers in the country.

After a year of sports-focused coverage I was asked to pivot and take on two city news beats. I covered local government and city life stories in Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel, Calif. for six months before deciding I wanted to move across the country for a change of scenery and a new challenge.

Over the course of my time at the Register I covered a bit of everything — from future NFL players to record-breaking twin babies, budget hearings to state champions. While multiple website redesigns have made it difficult to link to my entire author history, I am happy to provide clips of my work upon request.