Becca Newton
Student Reporter/ProducerBecca Newton is a student reporter and producer at KBIA. They will graduate from the University of Missouri in spring 2022 with a degree in Multimedia Convergence Journalism and minors in Peace Studies and History. Becca is interested in multimedia journalism, oral history, environmental journalism and accessible design. They are currently working as an associate producer with Missouri On Mic.
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Shelley Botts spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at the Central Missouri Renaissance Festival in October.She lives in Columbia and raises chickens in her backyard and calls herself “The Hen Wife.” She shared some stories of her unusual brood, and the strong personalities that come out in the aptly named “Betty trio.”
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Akshay Koppula spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at the Diwali event on MU’s campus last November. The event was hosted by the Southeast Asian student association.Akshay is a PhD student at the University of Missouri, and said that while he grew up in India, he now considers Columbia his second home. He spoke about how he wants people to know about the University and all it has to offer to students.
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Five-year-old Catie Critchfield and her mother, KOMU’s Emily Spain spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at a pop-up event at the Daniel Boone Regional Library on February 19th.They taught us that February is Heart Month – a time to focus on cardiovascular health and spoke about why that's important their family.
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Thomas Gambino lives in St. Louis and is known by many as “Byrd.” He spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at the Central Missouri Renaissance Festival in October.From being a pirate, to the “Cardinal of France,” to his regular day job – Byrd is someone who puts family first. For Byrd, when someone is in need – his found family is there for support.
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Lana Dicus spoke with us at the CoMo 200 celebration on the Fourth of July.She's a history teacher – a 2007 Missouri Gilder Lehrman "Preserve America" History Teacher of the Year, in fact, and she spoke about the vastness of Missouri history – including some of her own family history – and about some common misconceptions about the state.
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Shaun Smith is a Columbia area educator. He spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at the CoMo 200 celebration on the Fourth of July.Sean has a decade of teaching under his belt, and often imparts knowledge of Missouri history onto the future generations that walk through his classroom. He spoke about some the challenges he faced as a teacher during the COVID-19 pandemic – as classes moved online.
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Linda Godwin spoke with us at the CoMo 200 celebration on the 4th of July. She’s originally from Cape Girardeau and is a former astronaut and scientist for NASA who did four space flights and logged over 38 days in space during her career.Today, she works with the Climate and Environment Commission in Columbia informing the community about climate change and spoke about her experiences and how they’ve made her passionate about protecting the planet.
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Barb Bailey and Aaron Horrell spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at the State Historical Society’s Bicentennial event in August.For the past several years, these two artists from the southeastern part of the state, shepherded the Missouri Bicentennial mural around the state, so that as many people as possible – regardless of any age or ability, had the chance to participate in painting the mural.They spoke about what this process was like, why it’s important and what it means to them to be a Missourian.
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A citizen science project allows high school students to collect and test water samples to better understand the effects of climate change on Missouri lakes.
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In this 30-minute Special from KBIA’s Missouri on Mic, host Becca Newton spoke with Sean Rost from The State Historical Society of Missouri about our state’s tradition of oral history and storytelling.We’ll be hearing both stories – and from storytellers across the state – about what drives them to keep this tradition alive.