My passion for storytelling goes way back.

I was always a dramatic child. Up on stage, singing, dancing and acting. Telling stories that never really happened.

It's been my great pleasure at Broadcasting School to discover how passionate I am about telling stories that did happen.

Growing up in a small town where everyone knows everyone, that's a lot of stories to keep track of. Often times, I've been surprised to hear stories from people, where I would've expected to hear it from a regional or national news source, and I think that's at the heart of why I started studying journalism. The stories from small-town New Zealand are often just as important and as necessary for the national conversation as stories from Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch.