Pamela Rentz is a student at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, where she majors in Broadcast Journalism and African American Studies. She’s editor of the school newspaper, “The Famuan,” and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

In 2021, she has had several articles published in her school's newspaper, on specifically focusing on gun violence and mass shootings in America. Rentz has joined a musical fraternity named Sigma Alpha Iota. She is a university ambassador for her school and regularly travels with student government and other university officials in recruitment efforts and hosts regular FAMU student engagement events. 

As an intern for YMG in summer 2021, she reported on problems affecting communities that are often neglected by the government and the news media. She is passionate about mental health issues and has a special interest in how those issues affect the Black and LGBTQ+ communities. 

Working with experienced journalists, including YMG’s founder and CEO Jayne O’Donnell, “I got to see my writing in print for the first time,’’ she says.

Rentz helped write an article in the Washington Blade focused on debunking myths about the LGBTQ community using science and facts, and contributed to a series of articles about youth advocacy efforts around mental health across the country, part of which was published in USA TODAY. In the process, she learned how to present data with charts and graphs.

Rentz also acted as a moderator for YMG’s “Therapy Thursday,” a monthly Instagram Live discussion about mental health issues which she says taught her a lot about interviewing live and on-screen. 

All in all, she calls her summer internship “an amazing time.’’