One of TJ’s very own Spartan Alumni makes her way from the TJ Journal to the Denver Post.
Photo courtesy of Kayla Albert
While facing an uncertain career path, a tip from a friend and a spark from an old passion ignited in the Journal newsroom at TJ, lead Spartan Alumna Kayla Albert to work for the largest newspaper in the Denver Metro area, the Denver Post.
Albert started her journey as a Spartan a little late, switching to TJ for her junior and senior years from Denver School of the Arts (DSA). Throughout her academic career at TJ she was a hard working student taking honors and AP classes with high expectations of herself. “I was always really hard on myself when it came to academics, so I was an A and B student throughout high school. Good grades certainly paid off in the end, but I probably could have cut myself a little bit of slack in that area,” reflects Albert.
Out of all the many classes Albert took at TJ, she said her favorites were Unified Sports and Newspaper. “I was in Unified my senior year and I absolutely loved it. I also really enjoyed taking Newspaper because I had a lot of friends in my class, and our class was really fun,” said Albert.
Newspaper Advisor, Matt Spampinato, was teaching the newspaper class during Albert’s time on the Journal staff. “Kayla was a natural born editor; her attention to detail, style, and mechanics were among her strongest assets,” said Spampinato. “I was not at all surprised when I heard she had landed a great job at the Post. They are lucky to have her.”
After graduating in 2005, Albert planned to attend CU Boulder. Shortly before school was scheduled to begin she realized Boulder wasn’t for her and she chose a different path. She instead applied to CU Denver and majored in Elementary Education. However, she was unsure of what she wanted to do exactly as a career.
As a senior applying to college, Albert says she was fortunate with the financial aspect of attending college. Her advise for seniors when struggling with the financial restrictions of attending college ensues, is to apply for scholarships and to be wise when applying for loans. “I really lucked out when it came to paying for college — I never had to take out loans because my family had saved money for me. But my best advice would be to pay attention to the field you’re going into. If you want to go into social work, don’t take out $100,000 in loans. Be financially responsible in addition to choosing a great school — and, yes, that is possible,” said Albert.
Her uncertainty about her career path cleared when she was offered a job at the Denver Post working for the newspaper’s YourHub section. This feature of the Post showcases stories written and submitted by community members around Colorado. “I started my job with The Denver Post about two and a half months ago. I was actually told about the job by a friend who had also applied. When I started the job, I was incredibly overwhelmed. I had never worked for a newspaper before and I wasn’t used to the environment. But once I realized that I was totally capable of doing the things they expected of me, I felt completely comfortable,” said Albert.
Albert is now the Community Manager for YourHub at the Denver Post. She fulfills several duties including (among others) editing, updating the site with new articles, and managing the Facebook and Twitter account for YourHub. Albert describes her job as unique and fun and says she loves working for a large metropolitan newspaper. “I love being able to interact with new people everyday. There’s something about working for a major newspaper that opens doors to people and organizations that wouldn’t normally be interested in sharing information. I also just really love the people I work with, and that makes all the difference in the world,” said Albert.
Albert makes use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis in her job with the Post and says the utilization of social media is essential to what she does. “Social media is basically the foundation of a community manager’s job; it’s how we get the community to pay attention to what YourHub is doing and reach out to people who might have a story to tell. I post at least ten times a day on two different Twitter accounts (mostly news and events going on in Denver) and at least once a day on Facebook,” said Albert.
Having a good job she enjoys with a steady income Albert considers herself lucky. She also encourages students, particularly seniors, looking down the road towards choosing career paths to be flexible. “I like where I’m at in my life right now. For all the people my age it’s hard to find jobs. It’s taken a lot of work. Don’t get discouraged and pigeonhole yourself to one job. This wouldn’t have been a job I would have thought of in high school,” said Albert.
When making choices of where to apply to college and what possible career fields to go into in the future, Albert says to focus on what intrigues one the most. “When thinking about what you want to do when you’re older, think about what you have fun doing. If you do something you enjoy doing you’ll work harder at it,” said Albert.
Albert does not claim to know what lies ahead; she says that the future is unpredictable and cannot be planned for. “After graduating college and doing so many miscellaneous jobs, I’ve realized that planning for the future doesn’t always work. I may meet someone six months from now that will open the door to an opportunity I don’t have today, so I am completely open to whatever comes my way. In fact, that’s much more exciting, anyway,” said Albert.
