By Joe Pangburn
Melissa Tan doesn’t believe in happenstance.
Tan, a Longview, Wash., native and the daughter of Cambodian immigrants, wasn’t even considering the University of Arizona until she received a four-page pamphlet about the school in the mail.

“I fell in love with the photos and decided that was the place for me,” Tan, 22, said. “It was the best decision I could have made.”

She declared journalism her major, but as a freshman, she was unable to take journalism classes. So, along with general education courses, she took art classes because she was also interested in becoming an artist.

“I was horrible at it,” she said. “I couldn’t draw at all.”

When Tan began journalism courses during her junior year, she enrolled in a required photojournalism class.

“I found out I was really good at it,” she said. “Or at least I was a really quick learner.”

Soon her friends nicknamed her “paparazzi.”

“I feel like I stumbled into photography,” Tan said. “I’m thankful I did, though. It is priceless when you see the finished product. All the … lack of sleep and everything else you go through in journalism is worth it when you see the result. That is why I love it.”

She used the photos from that class to apply to the UNITY Student Projects in Chicago, a training program for college students interested in journalism. Tan was accepted to the program but was assigned to cover feature stories, initially a disappointment for her.
“I was a little jealous of others who got to do more in-depth work,” she said, “but you have to start somewhere.”