Thoughts of a journalist
The life of Professor Espin
By Eduardo D. Rossal
 |
| Picture from UNLV's Directory |
She is retiring this
Spring Semester 2018 and she reflects on her years of being an editor, public
relations and as a professor. She seems to have done it all. One career choice
that she laments to talk about is: When she was freelancing, or as she calls it
being literary prostitute, during that time she wrote "Kidding Around inLas Vegas."
Espin is passionate in her teachings and one of her favorite
subjects that she has taught over the years happens to be an important subject,
ethics. She said that teaching ethic leaves students overwhelmed as there are
no true guidelines, but the ones that the journalist comes up for their own
moral integrity. As she leaves, she accounts her years of experiences to help
her students understand the industry.
“I guess I was 23,” Espin said. “It was my first journalism
class at UNLV in 1976. I don't know if you would say I liked writing, but I
sure liked seeing my byline in print. I do not write for fun. I have tried my
hand at fiction and it isn't fun. It's harder than reporting and feature
writing.”
She thinks as herself as a technical writer rather than a
creative writer. She said there’s an art in her writing and it comes in the
form of finding the best way of conveying meaningful and understandable content
to as many people as possible.”
When she first started at UNLV as a student, a few of her
English professors told her that she has impressive writing skills. She decided
to explore more of her writing abilities, so on her second semester she took a
journalism class and was hooked.
“At the end of the class, we had to write a feature story,”
Espin said. “It was a little exercise that we had to do for journalism 101. The
instructor took it and heavily edited and had it published at the Review
Journal.”
She went over the moon to see her own name on the byline. Her
first feature ever written. She got bitten by the journalistic bug of writing
and being published.
In Espin’s early career as a copy editor for the Las Vegas
Sun, she would often come into work and wanting the day to be exciting; usually
that means chaos.
“I would be standing in the shower and praying for a
disaster,” Espin said.
In 1982, the newsroom filled with thrills and excitement
over the fatal crash of all four of the Thunderbirds, demonstration squadron of
the United States Air Force. Her prayer answered, she would feel guilty because
she would realize that disasters come at a price.
“The PEPCON explosion was almost my dream story,” Espin
said. PEPCON, Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada plant, exploded
and killed two people and juried 372 others. The story could have been her
favorite one, but it wasn’t since two people had lost their lives in the
explosion Espin said.
Espin had thought of a theory on why she and other
journalists are drawn to journalism, it’s because “at heart we’re all gossips,”
she said. Journalists want to know everything before anyone else knows about an
event and share it. When it comes to tragedies, there’s always that point of
the story where there’s a ton of mystery surrounding the event and the job of a
journalist to go and find out what really happen Espin said.
As she jumped off the journalism boat, she got herself a
cushy job as a public relation copy editor. She liked the money that she got
from being in public relation, children are expensive to raise on a journalist
salary, but not as fun Espin said.
After a few years in public relation, she went into teaching
and freelance writing or as she puts it “My years as a literary prostitute.”
During this period, she worked on a book titled, “Kidding Around Las Vegas: A
Parent’s Guide to Las Vegas” with an Amazon rating of four and half stars.
“Seems to be a reasonable resource, wouldn't buy if I had to
pay full price, but would borrow it from a library,” said Keysesoze, an
Australian parent that was visiting Las Vegas and Amazon reviewer of the book. “It
gives a good grasp on activities, price and value. As well as being mindful of ‘Vegas’,
for example suggests a particular venue and street, but identifies the
nightlife that your children may be exposed to on the way to the venue. Hmmmmm
- Maybe I would pay full price.”
Helen R. Neill, one of Espin’s closest colleagues and
Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Assessment, shocked that Espin
wrote a book that’s, because Espin didn’t want anyone to read it.
“She is one of those friends and colleagues that can get you
to really laugh whatever is going on,” Neill said. “She is one of the strongest
people I know. Her professionalism is quite remarkable.”
As Espin is departing from teaching this semester, Neill
says she knows as this chapter is closing; the next chapter is going to be just
as fun for Espin as Neill hopes it will be.
#NEWS #UNLV #UNLVURBANAFFAIRS #
Comments
Post a Comment