New reporter eager to plug in to community

Hi, Columbia Basin Herald readers and community members. My name is Rebecca Pettingill and I am the newest addition to the Columbia Basin Herald news team.

I grew up in the small town of Zillah, Washington, just 20 minutes south of Yakima. I was raised by my grandparents on their 10-acre farm. I am a big animal lover, especially when it comes to cats. Fun fact: at one point I had 16 cats. Don’t worry though; they were all outdoor mousers.

I first got introduced to journalism when I was a senior in high school. I was working at the McDonald’s in my hometown when a coworker who went to a different high school told me she was involved in a student journalist program called Unleashed with the Yakima Herald-Republic and told me I should join.

Each school in the area, depending on size, had one to two spots in this program for students, which included writing a feature and taking photos every other week for the paper. My coworker had the Toppenish spot and told me Zillah’s spot still needed to be filled. So, I looked into it and applied. The program brought the dozen or so students together a couple of times a month to brainstorm stories and receive journalism advice from people in the industry. The experiences I received there is what led me to want to become a journalist.

After high school, I went to Eastern Washington University, where I majored in journalism and graduated in March 2020. Straight out of college, I landed work with the Quincy Valley Post-Register, where I spent the last year and a half before coming to the Columbia Basin Herald.

I am so excited to be a part of the Columbia Basin Herald and cover stories in the community. I hope to help accurately portray the amazing things this community has to offer. I love meeting people as I cover events, so if you see me, don’t be afraid to say hello!

Rebecca Pettingill can be reached via email at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.