Photo by Vincent Ta
Rebecca Paredes is a fourth year Creative Writing major. She hails from Lake Elsinore and can’t snap, which “severely limits [her] ability to properly sass.” Rebecca’s current favorite book is “Girlchild” by Tupelo Hassman. Rebecca is a powerhouse when it comes to the written word. At twenty-one years old, she’s Editor in Chief of Life at UCR and the Arts and Entertainment editor for the Highlander newspaper. Want to learn more about Rebecca’s endless ambition? Read on!
What are your passions and/or talents?
I’m passionate about a lot of things that aren’t necessarily productive, like sleeping and binging on Netflix. I enjoy reading and writing, doting on my dog, drinking all the lattes available at Molinos Coffee downtown, and watching things cook in my slow cooker.
What do you do at Life at UCR and what steps did you take to get there?
I’m the editor of the blog, which means I coordinate and edit all the content submitted by my team of wonderful writers. All the time I spend on Tumblr is actually part of my responsibilities as a marketing intern for UCR’s office of Undergraduate Admissions. When I joined, the blog was an unofficial project that had a ton of potential; I worked with one of the original founders to help make it an official part of Undergraduate Admission’s social media presence. To do that, we worked on pushing quality content onto the blog on a consistent basis and answering questions from our followers — and pointedly avoiding showing our bosses the weird part of Tumblr.
What are some of your responsibilities as Editor?
I edit articles, manage my writing staff, obsessively update our publications calendar, and answer questions from our followers. Our primary audience is prospective students and applicants to UCR, so we try to showcase the student experience to people who might not know what Life at UCR (there’s the title!) is really about. Our audience also includes current students, so a big part of my responsibility is to figure out ways to showcase the opportunities available to everyone on campus. I couldn’t do this without my writing staff — they’re involved in tons of things on campus, and I love everything they bring to the table.
What other organizations are you involved with at UCR?
I’m the Arts and Entertainment editor for the Highlander newspaper, an organization that has truly made my college experience something I’ll never forget. I’m also a fiction editor for Mosaic, UCR’s undergraduate art and literary journal.
How have your experiences with these organizations impacted your time at UCR?
I’ve been with the Highlander since October 2012, and that newspaper has simultaneously taken over my life and enriched it entirely. I bounced around a few clubs before finding myself at the Highlander’s office in HUB 101, and immediately fell in love with the stress-and-coffee-fueled world of college journalism. Thanks to the Highlander, I’ve traveled to San Francisco and New Orleans, met tons of journalists from colleges around the nation (and Canada!), published articles I’m proud to have written, and learned more about myself as a writer and editor than I ever thought I’d have the opportunity to learn. I’ve also — and most importantly, because this is what I think we all want when we join clubs — made absolutely amazing friends, all of whom I care for deeply. We do things like buy food for each other, which is really all I could ever ask for in a friendship, because food.
What are your plans after graduation?
I’m taking a year off and working — I applied to a few teaching jobs, so let’s hope they like me, otherwise I’ll head off into the world of Humanities-major-baristas. My goal is to receive my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and I’m applying to graduate schools later this year.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I can’t whistle, either.
*All photos by Vincent Ta