Allana Barefield

Junior, Mass Communication • Xavier University
Last edited September 14, 2017

I chose New Orleans as the place to pursue my college education at Xavier University of Louisiana. In this humid, quirky but familial city, I had hoped to find the spirit of both my late father, a New Orleans native, and his love for sports and writing. It didn’t take me long to find what I was searching for. I turned my misfortune into my quest for a new passion to become a multimedia journalist. I began as an intern reporter at The Louisiana Weekly where I profiled a paralyzed Tulane University athlete to interning at The Advocate and interviewing Michael Brown’s mother Lezley McSpadden. From these experiences I got the journalism bug.

Last summer, I was selected as a reporting intern at The Louisville Courier-Journal, where I witnessed the legacy left behind by Muhammad Ali, as I covered his funeral. This summer, I participated in The New York Times Institute where my article that talked about race and hair ran in their race-related newsletter. This summer, I am a metro reporting intern with The Boston Globe. The opportunity to cover news for my hometown publication has allowed my quest so far as a student journalist to come full circle.