Shailey Wooldridge
Hi!
I am a journalist located in Jonesboro, Arkansas. I graduated from Riverside High School in 2018 and from Arkansas State University in August 2025 with a bachelors degree in multimedia journalism and a minor in political science.
I’ve been interested in media my entire life, particularly the art of story telling and how many different ways there are to tell one. My favorite forms of media are journalism of course’- it is the first draft of history. I’ve been an avid reader of the news and a documentary watcher my entire life. I also have interest in fictional forms of story telling like movies, television shows and books.
I’m originally from Caraway, Arkansas where there is a population of about 1000 people and absolutely nothing to do. I grew up surrounded on all sides by farmland and a five minute walk from the St. Francis Sunken Lands. My closest friends growing up were stray animals who wandered up to the house, the St. Francis river and the reforestation project that surrounds it. I have a deep connection to the natural world as a result and a life-long desire to protect it. Thus, I’m pursuing a career in environmental journalism.
I love to write, I think besides petting cats and feeling the sun on my face it’s what I was put on this Earth to do. My degree has also given me the skills of interviewing, working my way around a camera, photo, audio, and video recording and editing. I also have experience working for my university newspaper, The Herald, as the news editor, photo editor, and copy editor.
Shailey Wooldridge 