Her Story
About Sheila
Sheila Zapata is a writer with around two years of experience in the journalism field. She has worked for multiple companies writing publications and articles for magazines, newspapers, and digital media. Zapata works remotely with a flexible schedule focused on writing and research. She is pursuing an undergraduate degree in Writing and Journalism at Florida Southern College, where she minored in communications and recently received the most outstanding communications minor award. Zapata attributes her success to balancing her personal and work life and asking questions to ensure quality. She values committing to goals, helping others who are struggling, giving back, and not giving up. Her professor advised her not to stop studying, which has fueled her curiosity and commitment to education. Zapata sees AI as a major challenge in her industry as it replaces human writing and literature. She aims to grow her resume, gain more publications, and eventually publish a book or novel.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sheila
01What do you attribute your success to?
I balance my personal and work life a lot. And I think by doing that, I have a very balanced work life with projects and stuff. I also ask a lot of questions to make sure that the work that I do is up to par.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Don't stop studying. Education has a lot of power in a lot of fields, and knowing a lot benefits you. That advice always made me want to keep studying and keep finding out stuff and it made me more curious.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Just keep trying. Try to do everything and anything that you can find regarding the field. Get involved. Don't wait, don't overthink it. Don't think that you're not good enough. Take any opportunity that you can get. Even if you don't know a lot about it, you can still learn from it.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The uses of a lot of technology, mainly with AI, is taking a toll on the industry because everyone is using it in replacement of actual writing and literature. It's the comparison between people that actually put the effort into their own work and computers making articles and books that don't have any human feeling behind it.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Don't drop things that you've been wanting to do. Commit to the thing you decided to take. Never pass up or drop something that you really wanted to do. Always help the people who are struggling. Giving back and not giving up. Helping others and not giving up on your own goals.
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