Telling stories has been Becca Andrews’ job for around 16 years, and now, she is bringing it to WKU.

Andrews has worked in newsrooms since age 16, studied journalism at UC Berkeley for graduate school and now works as an assistant professor of journalism at WKU.

“I had always been really interested in storytelling. I come from a really southern family, so storytelling is a really big part of southern culture,” Andrews said. “Growing up lower-middle class, I was like okay, so I want to be a storyteller, but I want to make money. I know, I’ll go into journalism.”

Alongside being a new professor on the Hill, Andrews also writes freelance, pitches stories and sometimes takes assignments for different news corporations across the nation.

“God I love what I do,” Andrews said. “It’s the best job in the world,”

On her path to become a journalist, she decided to do two years of graduate school at UC Berkeley and spent time building connections with anyone she could who worked at Mother Jones, a nearby prestigious newspaper.

After graduate school, Andrews went on to work at Mother Jones in 2015, a local newsmagazine whose motto is “Smart, Fearless Journalism,” according to their website. Andrews’ beat for this paper was centered on abortion and abortion rights. 

This beat has stuck with her continuously, even up to now, with the pinnacle of her journalism and research being a book titled “No Choice: The Fall of Roe V. Wade and the Fight to Protect the Right to Abortion.” The book, published Oct. 11, 2022, is a timeline of the development of abortion rights being made prevalent in society and the debates centered around it. The book also includes some of Andrews’ own opinions and understanding of abortion rights.

Although she is a successful journalist, Andrews continues to push herself to be better each day.

“I’m bad about comparing myself to other people,” Andrews said. “I’m always kind of hungry to reach my full potential.”

Additionally, Andrews hopes to bring a new perspective on journalism to students in her classes, as she had wished for more angles herself as a student.

“When I was in college, I had, frankly, a lot of older, white male professors, and a lot of them had come out of the newspaper golden age,” Andrews said. “They were great teachers and I learned a lot from them, but their experiences didn’t reflect the career I wanted. I hope that I am bringing that creative, artistic perspective into my classroom.”

News Reporter Bailey Reed can be reached at [email protected]