The University of Louisville Alumni Magazine: for alumni, faculty, staff, students and anyone that is a UofL Cardinal fan.
Issue link: https://louisville.epubxp.com/i/705015
S U M M E R U O F L M A G A Z I N E | 2 5 T H E F U T U R E I S F U L B R I G H T Rae Hodge's passion for journalism is taking her to Cardiff University, where she'll earn her Master of Science in Computational Journalism. What led you to UofL and, ultimately, why did you decide to pursue a career in journalism? I'll be honest. I graduated high school by the skin of my teeth from Nelson County High School in rural Kentucky. I took six years after high school to work very, very hard in the real world. I did a string of odd jobs — everything from slinging beer at a biker bar to scrubbing toilets at a nursing home at four o'clock in the morning. I did a lot of manual labor work. I waited tables. The list goes on, but I did it all so I could fund some kind of career in the arts. I eventually started working with a non-prof t based out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, that helped students across the country learn about public speaking, speech and debate, and competitive poetry. I got really good at it. We were coaching students so well that they started getting scholar- ships. And here I've never even been to college! So I decid- ed it was time. I went to a community college, worked my tail off and took my 4.0 GPA over to UofL like it was a trophy. At what point did you decide to apply for the Fulbright? I graduated from UofL in 2013, and I decided to apply for the Fulbright in 2014 and didn't get it… So I did some research, and I found that a lot of people don't win their f rst time around. It's very common for people to reapply in the f rst couple years after meet RAE HODGE Research, United Kingdom, 2016–2017 Future Fulbrighter seeker Journalist trut