Nathan Hutto, 23, was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Ate the age of six, his family moved ito Dacula, Georgia. Nathan’s forebears and extended family founded and live in Hutto, Texas, about 30 miles from Austin, which ironically is the small town to which his classmate, Sandra McGill, evacuated when Hurricane Ike struck southern Texas in September 2008. He felt isolated by Dacula’s rural surroundings. His friends from school would hang out together in the evenings and on the weekends, but neither he nor his brother were able to do so because they lived on the opposite side of town, about a 30-minute drive away. This isolation created a close bond between his brother and him, as they often only had each other as playmates.
Nathan applied to multiple prestigious colleges, including Wakeforest, Washington & Lee, and Princeton, in addition to UGA. He was waited-listed for Princeton but opted not to remain in limbo waiting on a final acceptance. He toured Washington & Lee, finding the Roanoke campus beautiful but overall too isolated. He was ultimately swayed by the University of Georgia’s cheaper in-state tuition thanks to the Zell Miller scholarship and the surrounding town of Athens.
His favorite and best written work to date is a letter that he wrote to his parents. He is proud of it because he was able to succinctly communicate his position and because he was able to defend it well.
Tom Stoddart is Nathan’s favorite journalist. Stoddart is a photojournalist who almost exclusively shoots in black and white, and Nathan feels the moments he has captured in his 38 year career are some of the most moving images in modern journalism.
Nathan’s favorite book is On Writing by Stephen King. While this is not one of King’s typical horror novels, Nathan believes it is one of the most profound pieces he’s ever read. He thoroughly enjoyed King’s incredible insight on what it means to be a writer and what it truly takes if one wants to excel in his or her craft.
In five years, Nathan would like to have completely paid off his student loans and be working a fulfilling job that gives back to his community.
Nathan reflects on college years as offering a “window of opportunity” to develop as a student and emerging professional. He will miss the flow of announcements to his email inbox about internships and jobs but looks forward to self-starting some new endeavors after leaving UGA.
A fifth year student, Nathan started his college journey with the hopes of becoming an EMT. However, after taking chemistry which he describes as being a “miserable experience”, he switched majors to journalism because he says “I’ve always been a decent writer” and that his mother was a magazine journalism major. He would like to see where the skills that he has learned at Grady take him, and find his niche later on.
Nathan prefers to use a recorder while interviewing. A recorder preserves his source’s exact words, which helps him avoid even accidental misrepresentation while writing.
While he doesn’t remember the source, he believes the best advice he’s ever heard is “When things suck, love more.” If everyone retreats into themselves and becomes defensive, no one can open up to healing or improvement.
The worst course Nathan has ever taken while at UGA was his Chemistry 1101 class. Though it was an intro Chemistry class, the professor proved extremely unhelpful time and time again, basically refusing to answer Nathan’s questions even when asked directly.