One to follow

By Juan López

The Sports Journalism Institute has given us great tools from the technology to the handouts. But the best resource has been the multitude of guest speakers we’ve had — and on Friday we had one I related to the most.

Tampa Tribune reporter Nick Williams came into our class to speak about some of the trials and tribulations a young journalist has in finding jobs after college.

I had spoken to Williams (SJI Class of 2003) earlier for a story I was writing for our class newspaper to be distributed at the Associated Press Sports Editors convention, so I kind of knew what to expect.

On the phone, he sounded very laid back, but still had insightful answers.
He told the class about some of the places he had been for jobs such as Glens Falls, N.Y., Milwaukee and now Tampa.

Many of our other speakers had told us similar stories about their beginning in the journalism business, but I could relate to Williams the most because of how young he was. Williams entered the classroom wearing a blue dress shirt, blue jeans and a pair of Air Force One’s.

Classy.

Williams gave us a down-to-earth account of what the real world is like.
He’s like us. He grew up in this new technology age and is having to learn different types of media the way we are.

It was nice to hear from a guy who’s in a position that we are likely to be in very soon.