My name is Derrick Smith. I’m a journalist interested in sports broadcasting. Most of my journalism experience is as a producer, where I had to deal with tight deadlines and wrote scripts for the morning and evening newscasts at Fox 10 Phoenix. While I ended up leaving that job to pursue a career in sports, it taught me invaluable skills of time management and how to write tight for broadcast. I’m a highly motivated individual who wants to do my part in how society views people with physical disabilities. This is not only personal to me because I was born with a disability called cerebral palsy, but my brother acquired a disability himself a few years ago in an ATV accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Typically, when people think of people with disabilities, they think they’re dependent, unintelligent, and incapable of having fulfilling lives due to their conditions. In general, this is false, but due to the lack of authentic representation in the media, many people still believe these damaging stereotypes regarding people with disabilities. Having said that, I want to pursue sports broadcasting as a sports reporter to hopefully change some of these stereotypes that people may have of disabled people.I believe my qualities of empathy and kindness are key strengths that I can bring into a newsroom. As journalists, we may have to cover emotional stories that involve natural disasters, human rights, death, etc. In those moments, I believe it is key to be a human first and a journalist second. What I mean by that is that I think a journalist should always put themselves in other people’s shoes to try and be mindful of what someone else may be going through. That way, your sources will open up more and give the ultimate blessing every journalist seeks: trust.