Sara attended Stacey from 2017 to 2020. She was the editor of the yearbook and also Valedictorian of the 2020 graduating class. She is currently a senior journalism major at the University of Texas at Austin.
Sara recently produced and narrated an 11-episode podcast –“The UT Tower Sniper” for the Drag Audio Production House. You can check it out here: https://thedragaudio.com/author/sarakinney/
What are some of your favorite memories of going to school here?
Some of my best memories are from yearbook class! I always really
enjoyed going out to take photos, designing pages, and seeing what
all the clubs at Stacey were up to.
What were some of the challenges of editing the yearbook during the
beginning of COVID?
Not having the usual content for the yearbook was the biggest
challenge during COVID. So many sports start in the spring and
there’s a bunch of events then too and they all get pages in the
yearbook. However, the pandemic cancelled all of them. We also
didn’t know when or even if we would return to school, so we
weren’t sure whether we should wait until we get back to get
content for those pages or if we needed to plan something else for
them.
Where have you lived?
I’ve lived in Virginia, Illinois, Germany, Washington, South Korea, and Texas.
How many siblings do you have?
I have two younger brothers: Adam and Andrew. Adam graduated
from Stacey in 2021, and Andrew is still at Stacey.
What was it like going from a smaller school to a bigger campus in college?
I went to a bigger secondary school for my 7th through 9th grade
years, and when I enrolled at Stacey, I actually missed being a part
of a large campus. So going to UT Austin, where there is a big campus with so much going on was something I looked forward to. It took me a bit to find my place at UT since it is so large, but it has been great ever since then.
What made you want to study journalism?
I think yearbook at Stacey and writing for the newsletter was
probably the start of my interest in studying journalism in college.
However, I’ve always enjoyed stories and journalism is just an
opportunity to learn and tell other people’s stories, so I’ve always
had some interest in it in that aspect.
Who is your inspiration?
I think there’s too many people to name just one! My friends who
are all so creative, my parents who have been supportive of me over
all the years, my teachers who always tried their hardest to make
sure students learned everything they could in their classes, my dogs who always sought to have as much fun as they could each and every day are all sources of inspiration for me.
We are listening to your ‘Darkness’ podcast. How long did that take you to complete? How many people did you interview?
Thank you for listening! The whole podcast took about a year and a
half from researching to publishing. I interviewed 19 people for it
and their interviews are spread out across all the episodes.
What is your favorite activity to do in your free time?
I really enjoy baking when I’m back home and I also love crafting
with friends at school.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Just a hi and thank you to everyone I met at Stacey!
