Ella Hechlik is currently a senior at Florida State University from Sarasota, Florida. Her major is Media/Communication Studies with a minor in Criminology. During her time at FSU, she has served as both the Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion and the Director of Membership for her sorority Alpha Gamma Delta as well as working as a research assistant in the Cognition and Emotion Lab (CEL) here at CCI. She also spent over two years working for the FSView & Florida Flambeau , FSU’s independent student newspaper. She began as a staff writer before becoming the news editor and eventually editor-in-chief. The FSView was recently recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists (SJP) for stories written during Ella’s time as editor-in-chief! The publication received both first place for Best Opinion Column and third place for Best Review in the 2023 SJP Florida Pro Chapter Sunshine State Awards.

Ella spoke about working with the FSView saying, “My time at FSView has been so rewarding, and I am so grateful for all that it taught me. I will definitely take the lessons it gave me into my professional career as well as my personal life… I submitted the awards to SPJ myself, so knowing that we were finalists was a huge deal. I knew how hard my staff had worked while I was Editor-in-Chief and everyone that I turned in for an award deserved it. For us to be able to compete with other college newspapers that have full journalism schools and programs dedicated to them and win first place is well-earned and deserved for the FSView.”

After she graduates in the spring, Ella plans to pursue a Master’s degree to further her education!