Jane’ Aubry Page (’25) stood outside the Domino’s Pizza place where she worked and answered the phone.
It was the call she was hoping for: a job at CBS Austin as a photographer. Still in her work clothes, she landed her first post-college job, tears streaming down her face as she celebrated with her coworkers.
Page’s journalistic journey did not start in Austin, however. It did not even start in a newsroom.
The summer before her first semester at Taylor University, Page went on a mission trip to Malawi. Her heart was set on pursuing a film degree, so she was named the photographer for the trip. Even without sharing a language with many of the Malawians, she connected with them through her photos.
“Some of these men and women (in Malawi) had never seen their own picture before,” Page said. “One of the guys, I could tell, my camera made him a little anxious, (but when) I took his picture and I showed him his photo, his face broke into a smile. It's just, it's a weird concept to think that someone might not have seen themselves in a photo before.”
That experience drove her to tell more people’s stories, but during her first semester at Taylor, she realized her film-centered classmates did not have the same goals.
Many of them wanted to create stories that had never existed. Page wanted to tell the stories that existed, but hadn’t yet been told.
After talking to a few classmates, her advisors and God, she switched her major to journalism and committed to it wholeheartedly.
Over three and a half years, Page flourished. First working as a staff writer for The Echo’s Features section in her freshman year, she then rose to become the news co-editor, the managing editor and ended her collegiate career as the Upland editor.
Makenna McCord (’25) was assigned as the news editor of The Echo newspaper along with Page. What started as a working relationship between the two of them grew into a close friendship that has lasted after college.
“Jane is so loving and she's so godly and every time I talk to her, I just immediately feel lightened,” McCord said. “She just has this way of connecting with people that is so God-given. It is such a talent for her just to talk to you and make you feel like you're the only person in the room.”
Along with her Echo work, Page also landed three internships in three years at The Daily Sentinel in Nacagdoches, Texas, The Chronicle-Tribune in Marion, Indiana and participated in the World Journalism Institute in Sioux Center, Iowa.
After completing her college degree, Page moved to Austin, Texas, to live with two of her siblings and start hunting for a job. Like many emerging professionals, the search was far from simple.
She applied to local newspapers, interned with a Texas Public Policy Foundation communications team and worked at Domino’s in the meantime.
She noticed an opening at CBS, and despite feeling unqualified, applied for the position and got in contact with a former boss who was friends with one of the employees at CBS Austin. Not even a few days had passed before she got a phone call at Domino’s.
Page said that it was not just the hours that felt like they paid off, but it was also the trust that God would make a way.
“It’s easy to put your hope in a job or career, but…do not put your faith or your hope in a job, because the Lord will take care of it,” Page said. “You want to be wise and discerning and make much of what you've been given. And I think that's just working hard and well to God's glory each day.”
Page is opening the next chapter of her life, now as a graduate and professional with many more stories to tell — including her own.
