A Look at Leland

The other day I was able to talk with Leland Ornelaz, a print journalism student at USC. Leland is originally from Oxnard, California and hopes to travel the world someday as a foreign correspondent. Here’s a little bit more about his life and why he wants to be a journalist.

Q: What would you say is something about yourself that most people don’t know?
A: A lot of people know I’m in the military already… or that I was.
Q: You were in the military…
A: I was in the military. I was in the Marine Corps for four years from 1999 to 2003.
Q: So how was that?
A: I loved it. I hated everyday when I was in it, but you know once you get out it’s like I loved it. It was the most fun I ever had.
Q: Where did you go?
A: A lot of different places… I went to Guantanamo Bay before they had the prisoners there. I was in Singapore… Hong Kong… Guam… Japan… I was there for six months… Bahrain… I went to Iraq for a little bit… Dubai… Australia… Seychelles… a bunch of places. I got to travel a lot.
Q: So what do you think it taught you?
A: It taught me the world’s a lot bigger than Oxnard and that I don’t want to stay in Oxnard for my whole life. I liked travel already. It just heightened my love for travel because there’s a lot of things to learn and there’s a lot to see out there. It made me want to get out there and see everything and see the world even more so. That’s one reason I’m in journalism.
Q: What interested you in print journalism?
A: Most of that was traveling with the military and seeing the war and being affected by political decisions from the top by people you don’t even know for the first time. That’s kind of creepy. I’m here. Nobody else really cares or wants to be in this desert, but all of a sudden it’s like the invisible people that we can’t even see say to go in there. It’s really interesting. That and when I was in high school writing was a strong point. That was really the only thing I was good at so I decided to combine the two.

Favorite Web sites

I must admit I'm not that big of an Internet person. I use it for e-mail, directions and homework, but not much else. I don't have a Facebook or a MySpace account. I haven't used my AIM in so long I can't even remember the password. But when I do have some free time I surf some Web sites so here's three of my favorites.

1. Almost every day after I check my e-mail I go to latimes.com for my main source of news. I like that I can get local, national and international news in one place. I also find the format easy to use and like seeing breaking news before it comes out in the paper. It's much easier to find the stories I want to read on-line instead of searching for them in the newspaper.
2. My guilty pleasure is people.com. I love voting on whether I like the newest fashion trend or which pop princess looks better in the same dress. It's also nice to look at what the celebrities wear to the major award shows without having to catch it on television and listen to the announcers ramble. I don't like watching entertainment shows on TV because it the personalities and news seems so in your face. I like that you can choose what you what to read or look at.
3. When I'm in the mood to read more news stories I go to nytimes.com. The New York Times Web site (and stories) usually seem heavier and more serious, which I appreciate in some stories. I also like many of their column 1-type stories. It gives a different selection of story topics from the Los Angeles Times Web site and helps me feel more connected to the East Coast.