Master’s student Daniella Lake isn’t coming to USC Annenberg just to be heard. She wants to be seen. 

Lake is a veteran podcaster whose show, “Life Told By a Stranger,” spanned both her high school and college careers. Since 2018, she has interviewed subjects from a diverse array of backgrounds by asking them the same four questions about their lives, including what stories they would include in their autobiographies.

But when she hits campus this fall, Lake will be focused on making the jump to broadcast. The GRoW @ Annenberg scholar has set her sights on the anchor’s desk. She took an on-air training course over the summer and plans to join Annenberg TV News. After four years at University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in media studies, Lake said she’s now ready to cover her hometown as a journalist. 

“I really do want to be here in Los Angeles, and get to know my community better by sharing their stories,” the So Cal native said.

Growing up, Lake fell in love with the spoken word by reading scripture to the congregation in the Methodist church her family belonged to, as well as at the Catholic school she attended. On special occasions, she would read works by Black poets and give speeches for Black History Month. The soundtrack of her childhood included episodes of “This American Life” and “The Moth Radio Hour” playing on her older brother’s car radio as he drove her to school.

Lake first became interested in media production as a tween while volunteering with the Studio City Library’s Children’s Book Club. One day she was asked to help lead the children through a podcasting activity. Once she was in front of the microphone, she was hooked.

“It all just hit me in that moment,” she said. “I realized this is perfect for me.”

While at UC Berkeley, she developed the audio for the first-ever Black history audio tour of campus. She wrote for The Daily Californian and spent a term in Washington, D.C., during which she interned for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She has also completed internships at NBC’s Dateline and NPR member station KCRW 89.9.

While Lake enjoyed her time at Cal, the instruction was largely theoretical. Lake said she was attracted to USC Annenberg for the depth of its hands-on instruction. And she is hoping some of her assignments will be al fresco.

The incoming Trojan is passionate about food and culture and she will acquaint herself with the beat through a food journalism course in the fall.

“I just love hearing people’s stories, hearing about people’s families and uncovering history,” she said. “Food is a way to do that, to connect with people and learn about different cultures. Specifically, I want to educate and inform people about the culture of the African diaspora, all the different cultures, the diversity, the beauty.”

Lake is a first-generation American. Her parents left Sierra Leone in the 1990s due to the country’s civil war, and lived in a series of countries, including Gambia, Ghana and Eritrea before finally landing in the U.S.

The stories Lake heard as a child spanned the globe. Now she has a passion for telling stories close to home. Her career goal is to ultimately become a news anchor in the Los Angeles market.

“The MS in Journalism program is exactly what I need to get there,” she said. “I know I’m in the right place to learn this.”

The GRoW @ Annenberg Scholarship, initiated by USC Annenberg Board of Councilors member Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, an Annenberg Foundation vice president and director, is currently in its fifth year supporting graduate students of color on their path to obtaining a master’s degree in journalism.