MoCo Student Alumni Spotlight: Tatiana Diomi 

In this special series, we spotlight alumni from the MoCo Student. Today, we are honored to feature alumni Tatiana Diomi and showcase the newspaper’s history for our readers and local community.

Please introduce a short introduction about your past role in the MoCo Student and where you are now.

I’m enrolled at NYU (New York University) and I am a current junior. For high school, I used to go to John F Kennedy High School and Gaithersburg High School. [I was involved] for almost four-five years! I really thank MoCo Student for helping me build up experience in journalism and to continue that passion on writing about important topics. Building up this experience helps me apply it to other platforms such as me creating my own blog called “Inside of Tatis Lair” where I post my own commentaries, essays, reviews, and articles. I also even pitched and submitted articles and essays for different magazines and student-led news outlets in and out of Maryland. 

What was a memory you remember from your time in the MoCo Student?

When writing “Digital SATs will not improve accessibility” I was in an environment that gave me comfort and serenity. I was visiting a relative who happens to live in a rural part of Maryland. There isn’t much city life of course, only farms, small shops, and a couple of small communities. What I happened to love though is that quietness gave me peace of mind. I had difficulty writing this article at first but being in a setting of silence really helped me focus all together. I use this technique sometimes because noise can become distracting. It’s either I listen to soft music or work in a quiet space. 

What was your favorite part of working in the MoCo Student?

I think everything to be honest. MoCo students gave me something I thought I would never expect — they gave me a platform I never thought I would have. I was about 16/17 when I started working as a MoCo student. So I’m really grateful for that because growing as a person wasn’t the only thing I also started to grow with my career. 

How have the skills you learned in the MoCo Student guided you in your academic and professional career?

Working as a MoCo student taught me how to be more curious and invested into the topic I’m talking about. There’s so much you have to learn in order to write a very concise article and the amount of research you put into it in order to keep your readers informed and entertained. MoCo also taught me how to stay creative and develop my craft. I worked on the graphics for a couple of articles such as “A Guide To Student Advocacy” and “The Pandora Papers: How the affluent and powerful hide their wealth” and around that time I wasn’t too confident in drawing or doing visual art in general. MoCo gave me a level of comfortability and acceptance of my graphics because they were still being used to help give the topic of the article a vision. 

How do you see journalism impact your everyday life? This could be newspapers you read, journalism experience you’ve been involved in, or the importance of journalism in general.

Going to NYU, I had explored many options on how I can become more involved with the school, seeking many activities but one of them happened to be in my expertise. There’s a radio station called WNYU Radio. Working there, I was given the opportunity to have my own radio show, be a radio DJ, and be a student newspaper for a broadcast program called The Rundown. With this, I had many connections and stories that involved me interviewing content creators, celebrities, Yotubers, students, professors, artists etc. I love hearing others stories, opinions, and experiences and giving them a platform to share those things. I’m very big on storytelling and giving recognition when it’s needed. 

—Tatiana Diomi

For alumni interested in sharing their experience, please contact editorsmocostudent@gmail.com for how to get involved.

Written by the Editor-in-Chiefs

Photo courtesy of Creative Director jtc.jpeg