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Analisa Nazareno


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Chapter stipend-recipient describes her wild AAJA Miami conference experience.

Analisa Nazareno worked for 11 years in daily newspapers as a reporter covering K-12 education, general assignments, business news, and municipal government. She has worked for The Miami Herald, the San Antonio Express-News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She is also the chapter secretary. She received the chapter’s professional stipend and attended the AAJA national conference in Miami.

I am a stay-at-home mother and freelance writer. Needless to say, Sheila E's glamorous life, mine is not.
Staying home with my precocious two-year-old is a rewarding juggling act and a daily test of my negotiation skills. Still, it is a far cry from the clacking, whirring buzz and daily drama of the newsroom.
It's been nearly two years since my farewell cake-cutting at the San Antonio Express-News, where I most recently covered business, and where I also covered education.
And while I am in touch with colleagues and newsroom friends, I am largely isolated in my home office, aside from my daughter's story-time appointments and the occasional coffee break rendezvous with clients and sources.
So when I took a seat on the Voices copy desk at the AAJA convention in Miami earlier this month, I felt the stirrings of my familiar old self – or rather my younger, less domesticated self.
This summer, through the Texas chapter's professional stipend program, I was able to attend the AAJA national convention in Miami. Without the stipend, conference expenses would have tallied 15 percent of my annual gross revenue. In other words, I wouldn't have attended the conference.
Going to Miami was a big deal for me.
It was like going back home in many ways – and not just because I worked at The Miami Herald from 1998 to 2001.
Since joining AAJA as a student 15 years ago, I had been a conference regular, missing just a couple years. The last conference I attended was the Unity conference in 2004.
Four of the conferences I attended, I worked on the Voices staff as a full-time professional mentor and editor. Some of my former "students" are now on the staffs of The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The New York Times, and other fabulous newspapers.
As a young journalist, AAJA also helped jump-start my own career through the workshops, town hall sessions, critique sessions, and of course, that job fair.
So for me, the annual AAJA conference is more than just a venue for professional development and networking. It's like a family reunion. To not go year after year was like losing the person I had made myself to be, as well as losing touch with my family.
Going "home" to the AAJA convention meant getting reacquainting with my old self, in addition to meeting up with colleagues. What a joy it was to hear Vince Rinehart yell out to me on the Voices copy desk, "This is not a rewrite desk. This is a copy desk. We've got tight daily deadlines and we need to move on!"
Vince has been the copy chief for six of the seven years he has volunteered for Voices and is the editorial desk copy chief at The Washington Post. In addition to being a wonderful professional, he is one of the nicest people I know. I hadn't seen him in three years.
This year in Miami, in addition to sitting on the Voices copy desk, I participated in the national board meeting (as a proxy). I volunteered at the Silent Auction. I mixed with our state chapter members. I worked that job fair for freelancing contacts. And I also sat in on some of the excellent multimedia workshops that the conference offered.
Going to the Miami conference also meant getting back in touch with the new and ongoing challenges facing newspapers. I was able to put a palpable face to the stories I'd been reading on Romenesko and fully understand the state of change in our industry.
In general, I felt like the self-possessed, professional self of my recent past – the one connected to a community of journalists working to make the newsroom a diverse and dynamic place. This feeling is priceless.
Thank you to the Texas chapter for sending me back home.

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