This week, we’d like to introduce you to one of our interns, Izzie Hamm. If you’re a long-time reader, her last name might sound familiar — she’s the daughter of one of our former news reporters Keith Hamm and Lupe Corona, one of our former arts writers, who met here at the paper in the ‘90s. Now, Izzie has been hitting the streets and covering our community happenings, following in their footsteps.
How long have you been interning at the Independent? What got you interested in doing journalism? I’ve been interning since late August, which feels weird because the time has gone by so fast. I’ve always been drawn to journalism. When I was younger, I used to roam around the old office on Figueroa, bothering my dad while he worked. Watching him, listening to the stories he told, I realized early on that this was something I wanted to do. It helped that I’ve always loved to write. I started in Teen Press at Santa Barbara Middle School, later became an editor for The Channels at Santa Barbara City College for about a year, and now I’m here, and I absolutely love it.
What is your family connection to the Independent? Has writing been a passion of yours since you were young, or something you adopted once you got older? My dad has been a journalist his whole life. To my knowledge, he started interning at the Independent while earning his degree at UCSB. Because of that, I’ve always loved to write and read, and I’ve kept a journal since I was really young, so choosing journalism as my major once I got to city college felt like the right fit. Still, I struggled at first. It was difficult to rewire my brain away from creative writing and I quickly learned that if I wanted to focus on news, I had to let go of some of those habits. I was drawn to arts & entertainment, which is what I covered as an editor at city college, because it allowed me to write reviews and explore my connection to music. But over time, my love for storytelling and reporting began to outweigh my preference for conversational writing — and that shift is what made me fall in love with journalism in all its forms.