Rebecca Rillos

University of Arizona

To embark on a career in journalism, Rebecca Rillos had to roll up her sleeves and fight her worst enemy: shyness.

“I was timid and reluctant to talk to people,” said Rillos, a 20-year-old Tucson native.

But there was one thing she had no problem with: writing.

“My mom said I could write myself out of a jail sentence,” Rillos said.

Her ability to write, which emerged from her passion for reading, sparked her curiosity in journalism. During her freshman year in high school, Rillos took a journalism class, and she realized that reporting involved more than just writing. It also involved interviewing. “And I really hated talking to people,” she said.

Thanks to the class, Rillos discovered a remedy for her shy personality: diving into reporting. “Now, I would consider myself a bit of a chatterbox,” Rillos said.

Rillos’ early exposure to journalism persuaded her to pursue a career in the field. She is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in Spanish at the University of Arizona. She also works part time for the school’s paper, the Arizona Daily Wildcat, as design chief.

“I never saw myself as a graphically inclined person,” Rillos said. “My idea of drawing is stick figures; I cannot draw at all.” That changed in her high school journalism class, when she worked on a design project and realized she didn’t have to be an artist to work in graphics.

Since then her main focus has been design. Her short-term goal is to land an internship or a job at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix. Her ultimate goal is a career in newspaper design.

“Journalism is my high,” she said, “and design is how I get my fix.”

- Silvana Ordoñez