Katie Sanders doesn't have an exact moment when she decided on a journalism career. Rather her experiences have made it clear. She grew up in Madison, and worked with her aunt, the middle school journalism teacher, on the newspaper and yearbook. While in middle school Sanders spent time reading news on the Alligator Web site and set her sights on working there.

UF has always been on her radar or rather in her blood. Her parents are graduates of UF and as a little girl she proudly wore a Gator cheerleading outfit to football games and sat with her family in row 89 and cheered for the home team.

Sanders, a double major in journalism and English, began writing for the Alligator the summer after her freshman year. Eventually she became university editor.

She's gone on to intern with CongressDaily and the St. Augustine Record, as well as being selected by UF to travel to Jordan as part of a nine-day press tour.

She recently reached a turning point in her work when she began writing freelance stories for The St. Augustine Record. "I finally feel like I am getting paid to do what I love to do instead of having the privilege of doing what I love to do." Sanders doesn't have a ideal job in journalism. She knows after graduation she wants to work as a reporter at a great newspaper.

"I just want to write," she said.

- Leah Goodwyne