ThreeSixty Journalism alumna Erianna Jiles has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the $2,000 Pioneer Press/MN Newspaper & Communications Guild Diversity Scholarship.
Jiles is a junior at Metro State University studying creative writing. She started with ThreeSixty during summer 2015, participating in print and visual media opportunities with the program.
Beyond ThreeSixty, Jiles’ experiences include being a college contributor at The Current, interning for American Public Media Group’s Terrible, Thanks for Asking podcast, freelancing for KFAI, and hosting shows on KMOJ and KRSM radio stations. In June 2018, she earned first place at the Society of Professional Journalists Page One Awards for her radio feature on “The Queen of Dark.”
“I have discovered that I want to be a multimedia journalist,” Jiles said. “I’ve found that the story stays the same, but it’s all about how you tell it. Finding the love to play with different mediums to tell a story is extremely blissful for me.”
Jiles began her college career at St. Paul College, spent a year at North Dakota State University then started at Metro State for the fall 2019 semester.
“I didn’t start at a prestigious four-year college, and now being at Metropolitan State it can sometimes feel like I have fallen below the radar,” Jiles shared. “Being recognized for this scholarship continues to keep the spark lit within me. [People] see the potential in me, the growth, and the ideas.”
Jiles is the second ThreeSixty alumni to win the Pioneer Press/MN Newspaper & Communications Guild Diversity Scholarship. Kelly Saybe, a junior at St. Thomas, received the award in 2018. The joint Pioneer Press/MN Newspaper & Communications Guild scholarship was initially proposed by Pioneer Press management with the goal of creating a pathway for a more diverse workforce at the newspaper.
