Office of Communications: Personnel
April Sorrow
The environment is more than something April Sorrow lives in. It's something she's passionate about. As a college student, she originally transferred to the University of Georgia with the desire to go into environmental law. Along the way, she discovered writing.
"When I was at Young Harris, I really fell in love with the natural world," she said. She also had a love for science and communications – and as a student at UGA, she found that a major in agricultural communications was a perfect fit.
Then, while working as a student intern for the Office of Communications, she discovered her dream job.
"Working here made me realize that I really love public relations," she said, "After I graduated and went to work at newspaper, I missed PR work. I like to look at it as helping people as opposed to exposing people."
April worked for the Office of Communications until she graduated from the UGA in 2003. She started as a sports editor for one newspaper and eventually became photo editor for all five of MainStreet Newspaper's publications.
In the spring of 2008, she landed her dream job back at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Here, she writes news articles for the college's news Web site Georgia FACES (www.georgiafaces.com), which she's also helping redesign. She's also a photographer, copywriter, media liaison and editor.
"I have a personal mission statement," she said, "and a big part of that is to educate the public about the environment, giving them awareness and a sense of responsibility. In that way I feel like this job helps me fulfill my mission. I get to help people. I write stories about testing your home for radon and chicken genetics… I learn everyday in what I do, and that's really great."
As an intern, April was able to help launch the very first issue of the Environmental Report. Now, she's editing it.
"I like writing in general," she said. "One week I'm writing about home canning and the next week I'm writing about sex ratios in hamsters. The variety is always interesting."
At the end of the day, April drives home to Nicholson. She and her husband, Bucky, met in middle school, and now they live on the family farm with their two children.
"We have a garden that's taking a lot of time, but the kids helped us plant it and pick it,' she said. It's allowed "the kids to have ownership over the food, even though they're one and three."
She loves it when her youngest, Reese, "will run down the rows saying, 'I pick it; I pick it.'"
April is a photographer, a mother, a gardener and a crafter. "I like to do art projects with the kids," she said. "I encourage them to be creative and try to provide access to a lot of different materials and methods so they can express what they are feeling."