Sailing Towards Success

By Lloyd Bravo

Cal State University Dominguez Hills graduate Katherine Clements was not always a serious student. Throughout her academics she would skate through classes nonchalantly by doing the bare minimum in her course in order to receive a passing grade. However, during her last two semesters on campus a shift in her principles changed her perspective, along with guidance from faculty and peers, that gave her the necessary momentum to excel in the journalism program that would eventually paved the way for her current success as a staff writer and then managing editor at The Log Newspaper.

“In my last two semesters at CSUDH I kicked ass and I was like ‘give me everything you can’ and I wanted my byline on every magazine and newspaper as I can get it on,” Clements said. “In my later years, I became a much better student and my last semester at CSUDH was the only time I earned a 4.0.”

Clements has had aspirations of becoming a journalist while attending Huntington High School and helping revitalize the onced lamented school newspaper. Since graduating in 2021 from Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Clements has not diverted from her path and as she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications with an emphasis in Journalism with the help from her esteemed professors and peers during the four year trek.

Regardless, her maritime accomplishments were not a part of her initial charting course as Clements’ first ambition was to become a sports journalist and broadcaster. But, the restrictions of concise journalistic writing were a bit monotonous for her taste and her broadcasting skills never flourished, throwing another anchor in her journey.

“I took a few broadcasting classes and realized it was not for me,” Clements said. “My face and I am very bad on screen, but I am really good behind a keyboard.”

Although she did not find her passion with sports reporting, Clements realized that she wanted to express more of her creativity and found feature writing to coincide with all of the elements that came natural to her while learning that journalism does not have to limit the writer to one subject.

“When I was young, even when I was writing for The Bulletin, I was very sports driven and took on everything that had to do with sports since I was the tomboy sporty girl ,” Clements said. “When I started to learn with Professor Beers I began to understand that you can only go so far with sports because it is so factual.”

It was in her last two years that Clements would find the determination to achieve her goals as she became a more serious student that she has contributed with her older age. After graduating with her degree, Clements began to look for work in her field of interest. However, she felt that the trajectory of her career path was headed towards uncharted waters.

Fortunately an extremely timely beacon of hope named Jordan Darling, Editor of The Log and alum at CSUDH , provided a job opportunity that would provide an occupation quicker than Clements expected.

“I reached out to Dr. Brant Burkey because I needed some more support staff…and wanted someone that would be willing to take me seriously,” Darling said. “He recommended Katherine and I absolutely loved her enthusiasm and since she was a former student at CSUDH, I kind of knew her background.”

Clements explains the interview process was done over Zoom and the main questions that was asked by her future boss was how she could keep stories relevant and where she would look for pertinent stories along with other aspects of her journalism technique.

“The way I pitched myself was I told them I was good at manipulating stories in order to keep them relevant and how I could find leads for future stories,” Clements said. “It is all about being relevant and not boring.”

It was not long before Clements was notified that she had earned the staff position for The Log and although working with a former student and editor of The Bulletin has been an enjoyable experience for Clements, at first, it was one that gave her nerves before her initial meeting with Darling.

“When I wrote for Compendium I actually got to interview her and that’s how we first met,” Clements said. “Even during the interview, she was a tough cookie and I felt she was already my boss, but once I met her it was like we are best friends.”

The Log is focused on West Coast boating and fishing news, which falls under the Ducan-Macintosh group who used to own OC Weekly. The newspaper and online publication speaks about environmental issues along with boating and fishing legislation.

A primary amount of the writing responsibilities falls on Clements as her other duties include working on the newspaper’s Facebook and Instagram pages, correlating the proper Search Engine Optimizations for each article to drive more readers to the website and coming up with new aquatic-based stories.

“When I first started my position I was very frustrated because I did not know where to find these story ideas,” Clements said. “It is not as easy as it is in college where stories are handed to you since it takes a lot more research and I have to dedicate one day each week to find stories.”

Currently Darling and Clements have been working on a new podcast called “The Log newscast” that highlights and delves into the featured articles published on the The Log website. One recent episode of the podcast had to do with rising temperatures of the ocean.

“It felt extremely unrealistic and I am really grateful that this opportunity fell into my lap,” Clements said. “I am so happy but at the same time I feel like this is not real because how do you graduate and get a job in your field in a couple months?”

Clements gives a large portion of her success to Dr. Burkey who became a major proponent of the young writer and feels his tutelage was the most influential in her development. Clements explains that the writing process was never an issue as she got a lot of value from the courses she took with professor Burkey, but it was studying the minute details required in the journalism profession, including conducting interviews, finding fair use images for articles and not upsetting potential contacts was most beneficial.

“I do not want to give Burkey so much credit but he really did help a lot,” Clements said. “I learned more from him than I did during my internship.”

Darling has so far been impressed with her friend and colleague as a lot of the content for the Log is created by both former students.

“Kate is doing great,” Darling said. “I knew I could work with her since I remembered the profile she wrote on me for Compendium since she was very prepared…and was clearly enthusiastic about learning and becoming a better journalist.”

Clements is thrilled about her current position at The Log, which has established her newfound career as a journalist. Even though the workload can be tremendous, she feels grateful for the opportunity she has been granted and wants to see students like herself have the same success she has qreceived in a relatively short time period.

“Really take advantage of the people in the classroom with you because having so many vocal peers and colleagues really helped me be prepared other than my internships,” Clements said. “I think that what has made me successful is building those relationships with the people I spend every day in the classroom with.”

Since this article was written, Clements has been promoted to Editor at the Log, following the departure of Darling.