Maya Lora

I am unafraid to approach any subject that needs to be expressed to the public. I have always been outspoken, and I love pushing the limits of what needs to be said because people are afraid of judgments. I love writing, and I am not afraid to use my writing to express the ideas of a generation that is often not represented in the media, because our elders would rather us be seen, and not heard. The millennial generation is powerful, because not only are we intelligent, we are influential. So many of us are part of a community that embraces change, embraces progress, and questions the answers our parents have given us our entire lives. We aren't afraid to question why poverty is rampant, or racism is so alive and well, or why feminism in this century continues to be dismissed as the acts of hysterical women. My community of college students could benefit from this platform and my perspective in it, because this platform is about breaking news media molds. The media at large is afraid of touching conversations they think an audience at large disagrees with, but why? The purpose of news media is to expose and inspire conversation, not to squash it with vague sentiments that never convey the full story. I am passionate not only about news, but about diving into the toughest stories. At a Catholic high school, in the wake of the Paris attacks, I faced severe criticism for publishing an article in our newspaper about abuse Muslims were facing in the wake of the attacks and the Islamophobia surrounding them, because that was considered too controversial to cover. However, I will continue to write stories like that, because those are the stories that deserve to be told. I think the Oddysey is the perfect platform with which to take our media back and express the ideas the rising generation holds dear. The news may be objective in the way they tell stories, but they purposefully choose which stories they wish to publish, stories they know they can control and put out without any backfiring. I think the new generation of journalists needs to take their own experiences, and push for a coverage in the media that covers the interests and stories that we want to hear about, because we matter too. I want to be a part of that revolution, of that bright future.