Hey y’all! My name is Olana and I am the newest intern at Eastside FM.

I am studying broadcast journalism at the University of Tennessee, but I moved to Sydney two months ago for uni, and have two more months of living in this amazing city until I return back to the United States.

Although I am from the Southeast region of the United States, I have traveled to every state on the East Coast and have visited countries in the Caribbean, Central America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Studying journalism and electronic media has sparked an interest for communities, ideas, news, events, and music that is different from what I am used to. I love travel, photography, hiking, writing, and the arts.

My favorite genres are music are indie, folk, rock, and alternative (“Needle,” by the Born Ruffians, Chet Faker, and “Lonely,” by Colony House), I like landscape photography above all else (check out Paul Hassell’s Light Finds), and my favorite hikes are in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, about 30 minutes from my house.

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.” -Mark Twain

Living in Australia has opened my eyes to a world much greater than the norm in East Tennessee. I like what Jedediah Jenkins says about travel – it brings you to the realization that you occupy such a small piece of this universe, and allows you to soak in every single second of the beautiful adventure we call life.

I hope that my time at Eastside FM will allow me to submerge myself in the arts community and to bring new ideas and values back to the United States when I depart.