When Jackie Smith looks at her laptop screen the first thing she sees is a picture of a place that produced many of her best memories, the beach. Before this University of Florida journalism student discovered her interest in multimedia reporting, she experienced the luxury of growing up on an island in Sarasota, Fla., called Siesta Key.

Taking nightly adventures with her friends to climb onto an old seawall that they nicknamed “The Wall” and following it 50 feet into the ocean to do some stargazing was one of her favorite activities.

She came to college as a pre-med student in 2007, but stars were the last thing on her mind.

Smith changed her major to journalism after she started having reservations about the medical field and realized it involved more than simply taking classes.

With the dream to land a gig at National Geographic, this lover of biology and cell science decided she would rather write about these topics.

She made the decision and didn’t look back. She transitioned into the journalism world and started writing for publications such as the Independent Florida Alligator newspaper, but the highlight of her career was landing her current job as a Web producer for the Gainesville Sun newspaper.

- Margaret Francois