Audris Ponce

University of Houston

Audris Ponce always loved to write but wasn’t sure how to transform her passion into a career until she arrived at the University of Houston.

After spotting a flier asking for reporters for The Venture, a nonprofit newspaper, Ponce signed up. For her first story, she was so worried that her writing wasn’t good enough that she put an apology at the bottom of the page when she turned it in.

“I was so scared of what the editor would think,” Ponce said. Later, she added, the editor called and told her the story was fine.

She worked her way up to a news editor position at The Venture and a copy-editing internship at the Houston Chronicle. It was then she decided to change her major from public relations to print journalism.

Ponce, 21, is now a junior double-majoring in journalism and political science. But journalism was not the career her family had initially hoped for her. Her father wanted her to pursue law or medicine. As a first-generation Mexican-American in Houston, she strived to make her parents proud.

“I just want to validate their effort in the way they raised me,” Ponce said.

She’s considering applying to law school, hoping to become a reporter focusing on civil rights and immigration law. Ponce wants to write articles that will promote discussion and pave a way for change.

“The media is an important tool for social change,” she said, “and if used correctly, it can definitely make things better in our communities.”

- Louis Casiano