Erick Vallejos, Neighbor

Are you sitting comfortably?  Good.  Now where to begin…?

Erick Vallejos is currently a Political Science and Literary Journalism double major at UC Irvine.  When he was 10-years-old he remembers telling his dad that he wanted to become a lawyer (originally to make a lot of money, but he found the field interesting) and since then he’s been working to perfect a skill set suitable for the legal field (critical thinking, logic, argument, public speaking, ect.).  It wasn’t until his sophomore year in college (2010) that the creative part of his brain began to atrophy that he decided to try his hand at literary journalism.  He discovered that it was a great fit to what he was already doing to become a lawyer: being able to investigate and uncover facts, piece things together, question and interview people and then ultimately tell a story to a crowd of lay-people.  The best part, he could do all of this without having to memorize the rules of evidence.  At Patch, he may not do too much in the way of literary journalism; but he finds this to be a great stepping stone to go into journalism.  Although he is still deciding whether to be a lawyer or a journalist, he knows for certain that at the most a skill set from one will be useful for the other.

Although he is relatively new to journalism he has written a few pieces for various literary journalism classes.  His first major piece was about a swing dance group which suddenly shifted when a member of the group had committed suicide.  It was his first lesson that a story can suddenly change at the drop of a hat.  His most recent article was a profile of the 2011 Doo Dah Parade Queen in Pasadena, California.  This piece was his chance to discover his own voice, something he’s still doing today. 

When he isn’t chasing leads for stories or writing, he's crawling through dungeons, healing his teammates, and solving puzzles; he can be found playing games both of the video and board variety.  Video-wise his favorite games include the original Bioshock, L.A. Noire, Beyond Good & Evil, Psychonauts, the Uncharted series, and the Mass Effect series.  He is typically up for a challenge and is willing to learn a new board game at almost any time.  Besides gaming he’s also interested in cooking (he follows Alton Brown) and ballroom dancing.