NEWBERRY — Newberry native Kelly Duncan has joined The Newberry Observer as a staff writer. Her first official day was Monday.
Duncan, 22, has lived in Newberry her whole life, as have her parents, Donald and Cynthia Duncan. Duncan is the youngest child, with two older brothers, Daniel and Travis, and an older sister Joni.
Being a Newberry native, Duncan attended Newberry High School, where she graduated in 2012. As a student, Duncan was involved in Beta Club, National Honor Society and was the yearbook editor her senior year.
“It was not necessarily extracurricular, but I helped with Relay for Life and Pink Outs for breast cancer awareness as well,” she said.
As a student, Duncan said her favorite subject was English because she likes to read, just like her mother. They both enjoy going to Columbia to visit 2nd and Charles to shop for books.
After graduating from Newberry High School in 2012, Duncan continued her education at Newberry College.
“It was close to my house, I could walk there. I took three or four different tours for different things. One tour I took was for Creative Arts Scholarship Day and I got to see the TV Studio and do a fake news segment, with some of the stories they already had,” she said. “I really liked it so that is where I decided to go.”
During her time at Newberry College, Duncan was a part of the National Society of Leadership and Success and Blue Key Honor Society. Duncan says she was inducted into those groups because her professors saw how she was in and out of the classroom.
“My professors saw my grades and who I am as a person, and how I am in the classroom and community. We had to fill out a form, and they saw I did all this charity work and they thought I deserved to be in the groups,” she said.
Inside the classroom, Duncan liked her communication classes, where everything was hands on. She says she is a hands on person, and in the Video Production classes she was able to be in front and behind the camera, something she really enjoyed.
The Media Writing classes at the college gave Duncan the opportunity to be hands on with her writing.
During that time she worked with The Newberry Observer to write articles within the community. Her first article she wrote was a profile of Jackie Swindler, former chief of Newberry Police Department. She also wrote an article involving a bank in Prosperity getting new signage.
“I wrote some for the Scarlet and Gray (Newberry College’s paper). I did some articles on professors on campus and doing profiles on them, and I did stories on The Scarlet Poms,” Duncan said.
Outside of the classroom, Duncan could be found at a Newberry College football game.
“I went to a lot of the football games, all the home games, unless it was raining. I would walk to the games from my house and walk back. I went to a lot of them,” Duncan said.
Before Duncan attended Newberry College, she would also walk over to Newberry College for the Fourth of July when they held the fireworks there.
Duncan graduated from Newberry College this past May with her B.A. in Communications.
Duncan decided to come work for The Newberry Observer because she not only likes to write, but to help her gain experience.
“At first I wanted to do something maybe with TV, but a lot of places want you to have so many years experience in front of the camera. I like writing. I has always been my strongest subject in school and I figured I can write here at The Observer for however long, and then look for something in front of the camera, or writing behind the camera,” she said.