Samantha Pontius joins LCLN staff
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SAMANTHA PONTIUS joins the Lamb County Leader-News staff, after earning her B.A. in Journalism from Texas Tech University this past May. (Submitted Photo)
The Lamb County Leader-News is proud to introduce the newest member of our staff, Samantha Pontius, who will be taking on the General News side of things here at the office.
Pontius attended Brookhaven Community College before transferring to Texas Tech University in 2019. She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism from TTU on May 14, 2022.
“The football program is mainly what drew me to Texas Tech,” Pontius stated. “When I was looking at Tech, Patrick Mahomes II was still there. I missed being in school with Mahomes by a year, when I was transferring in, he was graduating.”
While attending TTU, Pontius was a part of several organizations.
“I was with the Transfer Texans for about a year, which is the transfer student organization, I was with the Lubbock Free Riders for about two years, which is a skate group, I worked for La Ventana, which is the Yearbook at the University and I also worked for a short time at the Daily Toreador.” Pontius interned for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal last summer.
“I learned a lot while I was there,” she said. “I learned how to deal with sources who can be difficult, I dealt a lot with things I didn’t think of before hand. Originally, I wanted to do sports, but after interning at the A-J, I realized that I love human interest stories and I love focusing on small-town heroes. If I get to do that here, that will be super awesome, that is what I want to do.”
Pontius joined the Leader-News Staff on Thursday, June 16 th .
“We are excited to have Samantha join our staff and become a part of our work family,” Derek Lopez, Sports Editor of the Lamb County Leader-News. “Our entire staff feels she will be a great edition to our staff and we all look forward to working with her.”
Outside of work Pontius said that she loves to read and sleep. She also said that she likes to just enjoy her time and watch TV.
“I don’t really have a specific genre that I like to read, I like to read everything,” she explained. “Currently, I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series.”
Pontius talked about her role models and people she’s been able to look up to on her journey to becoming a journalist, stating, “As far as role models go, I would definitely say that my mom is my role model. My mom has always been my career advisor/ financial advisor.
She added, “As far as professors go, I looked up a lot to Professor Lucinda Holt. I talked to he a lot while I was at TTU and he and I got kind of close.”
Pontius explained that she looking forward to getting into a routine and getting to know every body and becoming really good friends with everybody here.
Pontius is a native of Irving, Tx, but graduated high school from Hebron High School in 2014.
Pontius is excited to get rolling here at the Leader-News and is looking forward to meeting our readers. If you would like to meet Pontius you can come see her at the Leader-News office.