When Danyella Davis graduates in summer 2008 with a journalism degree from Ball State, she’ll take with her an impressive resume. Feature writer for The Ball State Daily News. Staff member of Ball Bearings , the university’s award-winning online multimedia publication. Contributor to The Reel Deal, a weekly entertainment news television show. Intern at the Indianapolis Recorder.

Concerts…student performing groups…a fashion show to support breast cancer awareness… professors participating in the Magic City Music Men barbershop chorus…a student living with cancer…and much, much more. Davis has had the opportunity to tell their stories through the university’s varied media outlets.

“Ball State University really understands the importance of a hands-on approach and real life experiences,” says Davis, who is specializing in magazine journalism. “It’s not just about the standard classroom approach.”

Even in the classroom, nothing is ordinary. Assignments take students beyond the comfort of campus and into town.

“The assignments force you to get over your fear of talking to people. At the end of one course, we had to use everything we had learned to produce a print story, Web story, and radio package,” she says.

Her course work and on-campus experiences no doubt helped her to land a coveted internship in 2007 with the Indianapolis Recorder. As she reflects on her time at Ball State, Davis says she’s grateful for the opportunity to study with some of finest journalists.

“I have learned from the best people who are either still in the business or once were in the business," she says. "It makes me realize that my goal of becoming a great journalist is not so far removed.”

Watch the commercial in which Davis describes her education at Ball State.