Journalist and Activist – Utah
“Don’t be afraid of failure.”
Sophie Jin is a proud native of Salt Lake City, Utah. She has many keen and disparate interests: in journalism, which she has pursued as a writer for the local newspaper and as an intern at the public radio station KCPW; in poverty issues, both international and local, working at the local level as an intern at Utah Issues, a political advocacy group for the poor in Utah; and in science - she has done research at the University of Utah and is currently working for the FAS Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University. She also loves good writing, photography, stargazing, and running. She will be attending Princeton University as a freshman this fall.
You are an extremely well-rounded individual. How did you become interested and involved in journalism, medicine, poverty issues, and student government?
I first became interested in journalism when I found NPR on the radio while dialing through. I thought it was a radio station that treated news in a way that I had never heard before, so I asked if I could be an intern and started doing reporting.
I got interested in evolutionary biology and (I forgot what you said here) in high school, so I pursued summer research to be more directly involved.
As for poverty issues, I worked for the Salt Lake County Division of Youth Services in a girl’s group home 2 years ago. It was really fascinating getting to know some of the girls there; a lot of them exposed me to issues that I had never been exposed to and I was interested in local poverty issues after that.
Finally, student government was just a natural progression. I really really loved my school. West High School in Salt Lake City is probably the most diverse high school in Utah. There are around 2,500 kids from lots of different backgrounds. A large portion of the students are Latino and there are lots of different refugees who take ESL classes. Even though there are so many different kids with great stories that help to make school so amazing, there are lots of problems like the high dropout rates. I had lots of friends who supported me, and I ran for student government President just to dry to do something to make WHS better. I helped to institute a freshman student mentoring program to try to prevent kids from leaving school so early, and tried to get more kids involved in school activities like encouraging special ed students to come to dances and making it easier for them to be there.
What prompted you to become a leader?
Generally, I was just pursuing an interest and it happened to lead me into leadership.
What obstacles have you faced in achieving your goals?
There are tons of internships I didn’t get that I applied to. Working at the radio station being young really hurts, because people you’re talking to don’t really want to be interviewed by someone young. It’s hard to get someone to take you seriously. Being a girl in journalism isn’t much of an issue but doesn’t help when you’re 16 or 17 and have a really high voice. When I found that to be a problem the news director would go over my scripts and make me say them in a lower voice, but hopefully that is something that isn’t going to be that much of a problem much longer. To compensate for my age and high voice, I had to do more research so people would answer the questions that I asked and would get absorbed in answering my questions. I’ve also had to learn to overcome being irresponsible (like procrastinating). In high school I think it is especially more difficult for girls to tell others to do things without being bossy and seeming aggressive, which is different than with boys. People take it differently in high school. I had to learn how to develop a leadership style that’s not abrasive. Trying to get stuff done in high school, is difficult. There is a different dynamic.
How has your experience been shaped by being a woman?
I was on the Oprah show for writing an essay. As with a couple other scholarships, an enormous number who win are girls, few are guys. I feel like there’s a trend toward successful girls. It has to be changing at some point how many successful women make it to higher positions. It seems like such a small world. Utah is definitely a conservative state, but it seems like there are so few boys who win academic awards. Bizarre.
What lessons have you learned from your experiences?
Platitudes are very accurate. There isn’t anything that I could say that isn’t incredibly clichéd: aim high, don’t judge people, etc.
If you had the chance, would you have done anything differently? If so, what and why?
I had so many opportunities when I was in Salt Lake, and I wish that I had been able to set a structure (while I was accomplishing things) so other students could do the same things after me. I know I still can, but it is harder to organize and structure from the East Coast. I wasn’t really thinking about the future of my actions at the time, but I wish I had thought of it. I wish I had created something that was replicable or standard. I learned so much from doing all of my interning and other work, even just going through school. I am the oldest, my parents are from China, and I felt like I was figuring things out for the first time as I went along. It would have been nice to have a guiding light. I’ve been trying to help my friends out that are younger, but I think it would have been really amazing to help people I don’t know out too.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
No idea. Hopefully something that serves others and serves me well. I think I want to go to medical school, but I could change my mind pretty readily.
What advice do you have for young girls who are interested in journalism, medicine, poverty issues or have leadership aspirations?
Don’t be afraid of failure.
