Meagan Ellsworth has been interested in writing stories since she was a child, but her journey towards a career in journalism wasn’t linear.
Ellsworth, the Beaumont Enterprise’s new public safety and general assignment reporter, when she was younger wanted to go into the health field, but she wasn’t as confident in her math and chemistry skills as she was in her writing.
“My mom started a support group when my brother was young and diagnosed with autism,” the Hudson native said. “And I saw how sharing information and raising awareness helped people.”
When Ellsworth was in high school, she needed an elective credit and chose journalism — planting the seeds for her future career.
Ellsworth’s family moved to Bridge City when she was nine, and she lived there until she graduated high school. From there, she attended Sam Houston State University and graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication with an emphasis in print journalism and a minor in management information systems.
At SHSU, Ellsworth served as editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Houstonian, and did freelance work for local newspaper The Huntsville Item.
After graduation, Ellsworth didn’t immediately go for a job in journalism, she said. Instead, she moved to Austin with the intention of attending The University of Texas for a master’s degree. However, test anxiety kept her from taking the GRE, she said.
Ellsworth said after a year working in used car sales, she received a call from former CNN correspondent Kelli Arena who was starting the Global Center for Journalism and Democracy at SHSU.
“I moved back to Huntsville to work with her as an executive assistant and had the opportunity to travel with her on two trainings — one in Lebanon and one in the Philippines,” she said.
Though not working as a journalist during this time, Ellsworth said it made her hungry to get back to writing.
She went back to The Huntsville Item to work in their advertising department since they didn’t have an editorial position open at the time, Ellsworth said.
“I gained some experience working with the businesses in Huntsville, and that gave me an opportunity to learn about businesses as well,” she said. “It was kind of interesting because it was like every job I had. Even if it wasn’t for journalism, it was helping me in some way to be a journalist.”
Eager to get back to writing, Ellsworth said she contacted a colleague at The Courier of Montgomery County in Conroe and in 2015 secured a job.
Ellsworth worked at The Courier for almost six years. After moving to Pinehurst in March, she was commuting to Conroe every day, but she wanted to be closer to her niece other family.
Learning from and serving the community is what Ellsworth said she’s looking forward to most about working at the Enterprise.
“When I look back on it all, and I look at what I have done in the past six years, it really comes down to I love to write, and I love to serve,” she said. “And journalism gives me the opportunity to use my passion to help inform and improve the community.”
Ellsworth’s first day was June 21.
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