Sara J. Martinez
It’s rare for someone’s first journalism job to be at a newspaper she created, especially when that person is 9 years old. But that’s exactly what Sara J. Martinez did.
In the summer after third grade, Martinez started her own newspaper, The Lynwood Gazette, with a friend. It was named after her neighborhood in Oak Lawn, Ill.
“We went around the neighborhood interviewing people and collecting stories,” Martinez, now 22, said. “I think we even made up a couple of stories, but don’t call me an unethical journalist.”
Martinez had always thought she would be an engineer because she was good at math and science, but early exposure to the world of journalism soon changed her mind. Her father works in the technology department at the Chicago Tribune, and she “grew up seeing the press rooms,” she said.
“I realized that was a place where I could see myself working forever,” she added.
As a senior at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Martinez has contributed to every media outlet at her school — the newspaper and magazine, and the radio and television stations.
Journalism “is a challenge, and it’s different every day,” Martinez said. “I love being able to go out and explore.”
Martinez’s passion for words and details earned her a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund copy-editing internship the summer after her junior year in college. She credits a lifetime of winning at Scrabble, starting age 5, .
Martinez said that at The New York Times Student Journalism Institute, she hoped to try everything.
“I don’t like limiting myself,” she said. “I’m always trying to learn new things.”
A version of this article appeared in print on page 14 of the Tucson 2010 edition of The New York Times Student Journalism Institute.