Letter from the Citizen Reporter to Colorado County

Hello, my fellow Colorado County residents! My name is Shayla Kuykendall, and I am proud to be a part of the Colorado County Citizen family. I grew up in Eagle Lake and even shared human-interest stories featuring some of my fellow citizens on my blog, Intellectual Beats. Since returning to my hometown this past September, the decision to become a reporter for the Citizen has felt like a call to service.

I realized I wanted to be a journalist when I was 11 or 12, because I loved writing. However, my time at Rice High School helped to solidify my decision. From 2010 to 2014, I competed in UIL Journalism competitions where I placed in feature and news writing. I advanced to regionals twice and went to state once. While in school, I also participated in band and color guard.

After high school, I attended Wharton County Junior College and received an Associate of Arts degree. From there, I went to Houston Baptist University (now known as Houston Christian University), where I majored in mass media arts. I served as the Life and Arts Editor at our student ran, online newspaper. I then went on to intern at an online family publication and at KPRC-TV (Channel 2 News), where I gained real world experience writing for digital news and television. I’m grateful to have interviewed Cirque Du Soleil, the Children’s Museum of Houston and Dress for Success Houston.

Finding work in digital news was a little harder than I expected upon graduation. I worked in human resources for a year at my alma mater before becoming a substitute teacher. During that time, I worked on a journalism teaching certification until the pandemic halted my plans.

In 2021, I decided to go back to school and enrolled at Texas Southern University. I graduated in December 2022 with a Master of Arts in communications and a concentration in professional communication and digital media.

Before joining the Citizen, I worked in corporate communications and digital marketing for a real estate company in Houston, Texas. I am grateful to have held roles related to journalism and communications, and I cherish these experiences not only for how they have shaped me, but because they allowed me to meet so many people.

Navigating through my various experiences has taught me that everything works together in life; no experience is wasted, and I thank God for that. With that being said, I am so excited to be your new General Assignment Reporter! I hope I can serve you and help shine a light on the citizens and organizations that make Colorado County a great community.