Alumni Spotlight: Linnea Hoover
Learning to embrace the chaos in the field with ‘hope, energy and enthusiasm' Western grad Linnea Hoover found success as a visual journalist working in the Peruvian Amazon and at WQAD-TV News 8 in Illinois.
Story by Raine Westfall
Embracing the unpredictability of life while trying to create a meaningful existence can be a struggle for anyone. For Linnea Hoover, a passion for film led them down a path in life where they later experienced bliss in sharing human moments through journalism.
“We get to see people’s successes and failures, we get to see what’s going on in the world, and we get to tell different versions of different perspectives,” Hoover said. “It’s really meaningful to me to be able to go out and do work that informs the public so that they can hopefully make better decisions every single day. They can know what’s happening in their community, they can see the good things that are going on, but they can also see the things that need to be worked on and changed.”
Hoover, a spring 2022 visual journalism grad, said being open to trying new things has impacted their career and outlook on life. Getting involved with campus publications, such as The Planet, inspired them to be open to new opportunities after graduation. Over the summer, they interned as a field photographer in the Peruvian Amazon with the conservation group Fauna Forever. Upon returning, they quickly moved across the country to start a new job as a staff visual journalist at WQAD-TV News 8 in Moline, Illinois.
Hoover didn’t find their passion for journalism work right off the bat. Initially they were pursuing an arts degree in animation at CalArts. After taking a 10-year break from school due to some unexpected health issues, Hoover decided to return to initially finish an arts degree. However, after taking a journalism course, they quickly fell in love with it.
“Journalism is, I don’t know, it’s what gets me up every day,” Hoover said. “Now, it’s what helps me get out of the hole every day.
Hoover said it took them a long time to reframe how they viewed things in life, but their family mantra, ‘hope, energy and enthusiasm,’ helped get themself out of a dark place.
Waking up every day and repeating their mantra Hoover said helped open doors they thought they shut and experience things they’d previously talk themself out of doing.
“I’m getting up now and telling myself hope, energy, enthusiasm, and then trying to put that into everything that I do. It has really helped me move past what I thought was an ending into a new beginning.”
Being a lifelong fan of wildlife documentaries from NatGeo and BBC, Hoover said they wanted an internship that would give them an opportunity to pursue their passion working in the field. Fauna Forever allowed them to do just that.
Hoover said their faivorite part about working with the group was the enthusiasm the scientists held for wildlife conservation, and the education Hoover received that allowed them to better report about the species they were documenting.
During the internship, they followed scientists around the jungle in intense heat while documenting species from spiders to frogs and gathering content for grants and social media.
Overcoming extreme humidity, living in tight quarters and learning to work with strong personalities, Hoover came away with an educational real-world experience and found a group of lifelong friends.
As a student, Hoover said it’s important to understand that nothing in life is ever really perfect. Being compassionate with yourself and allowing yourself to make mistakes helps you learn, grow and let go of the overwhelming nature of school.
|“Western is a place that kind of helps its students grow into the person, they can envision themselves being in the future,” Hoover said. “And it was kind of like, whatever goals I set for myself, Western gave me the tools to achieve them.”|
The biggest key they learned in excelling in a new job field was to embrace the chaos. Hoover learned that their schedule changes quickly and every day at work presents new challenges and triumphs, somedays ideas are shelved, stories fall through, sources are hard to find, or new events pop out of the woodwork and you need to be there to chase them.
They found they appreciate the chaos and enjoy embracing the diversity every day holds.
“Don’t be afraid to try new things,” Hoover said. “Finding those little things made me realize this is something I could do every day. Even if I stay here in Davenport, just working for WQAD, if I can focus on those little moments here and try new things and experience new things here, I’ll be perfectly content for the rest of my life.”
Finding little pieces of significance in the community and being able to tell those interesting stories through film is one of the things Hoover said drives them the most. Looking for life’s little moments to tell a story in her job Hoover saids, is like searching for visual candy.
“I think anybody can find them. I don’t think you have to be a journalist to find those moments,” Hoover said. “I think it can make it easier for you to identify them, but it actually kind of ties back into that hope, energy, enthusiasm thing, like you’re finding little moments that make you enthusiastic every single day.”