Louis Casiano

University of Houston

Louis Casiano didn’t learn about journalism in a classroom or at an internship. He learned about journalism while serving in Iraq.

Casiano, 31, who grew up in New York, was a specialist in the Army from 2001 to 2005 and served a yearlong tour of duty in Baghdad in 2004. There, he met reporters embedded with the military. He asked them how they covered events and what they did on a daily basis.

“Talking to them had a big impact,” Casiano said. “That was one of the main turning points.”

Casiano said he enlisted in the Army when he was still a “ghetto kid” from Harlem. At the time, he hadn’t thought about pursuing a career in journalism, even though he often followed current events. After Sept. 11, he was able to explain to his family and friends who Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were because he knew about them through the news.

Joining the Army gave Casiano the opportunity to see the world, he said. Before he joined the Army, he hadn’t even been on a plane. Before he was shipped to Iraq, he hadn’t been out of the country.

After he graduates from the University of Houston this May, he said, he hopes to do the same thing as the reporters who inspired him — cover international affairs or be an embedded journalist.

“When I saw the journalists who went overseas, they were doing what I thought was exciting,” Casiano said. “It just hit me like a ton of bricks that that was what I wanted to do.”

- Paige Cornwell