profile of Chelsea Toledo

Chelsea Toledo is a typical graduate student on her first day at UGA's Grady college of Journalism and Mass Communication. "I'm just as nervous as all the others" she said.

Three roller-coaster years have rushed past since Toledo last sat in a classroom. Toledo began college majoring in classical singing at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. But she suffered a throat injury that silenced her singing, did some thinking and realized that despite her love for music, she wanted to pursue a career that was less fragile. Following successful throat surgery, Toledo transferred to UGA and graduated in 2007 with a degree in linguistic.

Although undergraduate school seemed relatively easy, thanks to all the French, German and Italian Toledo learned as a singer, Toledo's application for graduate studies in linguistics was turned down.

The following years were the nadir of her young life. Toledo signed up for two-years with Teach for America but quit after six months. She learned to be a barista, served coffee, and helped other people prep for the GRE. Then she and her husband decided to start their own magazine.

The magazine is named L+C Quarterly, stands for Lion + Canary or Literature + Criticism. Toledo will write a column called “From the beautiful mind of your barista”. The magazine will be available free in the waiting rooms.

And this is how Toledo arrived for her new adventure at Grady College.

“I lack background. I am not trained in the realm. What am I going to learn?” freak out like all other new faces, Chelsea receive great help from the professors.

Toledo chose health and medical journalism as her concentration, even though that has no obvious connection with the magazine, because, it appears to her that “it is better to have a concentration than not to”.

Fortunately, she doesn’t have to decide everything right now or even after two years of graduate school. Toledo hopes that after several weeks’ classes, her concerns will disappear.

Now all we have to do is to look forward to Chelsea’s magazine. Those new students who have either manpower or material, contact Chelsea and see if it will be a great opportunity and arena to enrich your own journey.