I put together this slideshow as part of a project with my Borderbeat.net journalism class. We visited St. Andrew's Children's Clinic in Nogales, Ariz., a free health clinic for low-income children from Mexico. This was a unique experience because we, as student journalists, were given free reign to take photos, collect audio, interview doctors, patients and volunteers and shoot video. Normally it is very difficult to gain access to medical facilities, so this was an opportunity that I'm not sure I'll have again anytime soon. The children were wonderful. This little girl, Alessa, who is not even a year older than my son, was paralyzed after a terrible car accident.

This project, done for my Advanced Photojournalism class in Spring '08, was both my first photo story and my first multimedia project. It was also the most in-depth project I've done so far. I spent several weeks with Layla collecting material for this in order to give a good glimpse into her everyday life.

This project really changed my ideas of what I want to be as a journalist. I decided that I wanted and could do so much more than write. I wanted to touch people and bring them closer to a subject or an issue through multimedia. Not only that--the creative process was incredibly rewarding for me.

Now, watching it I cringe at some things that I would definitely improve on, but that is part of learning, and I look forward to each project I do being a little better than the last.