McKenna Armstrong

How it all started

As a young kid, I always loved to run off with my mother's iPhone 5 and take pictures of everything; myself, my parents, my sisters, nature- you name it and I was snapping away. In 8th grade, I took a study hall course on photography because I thought it would be cool- and I was so right. As I was exploring my interests, the COVID-19 Pandemic hit.

Getting through the pandemic in the midst of puberty was hard on teenagers all around so, coming out of it, I decided to get more involved in school and it was more important to me than ever before because I was in high school. Freshman year was my first year in a "real" journalism course. I took introduction to photography and it was different but I liked it and it eventually took me to yearbook where I would spend hours upon hours with friends doing what I loved. 

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I graduated from Staley High School in 2024 as both a high school senior and college freshman while balancing journalism, my own photography side hustle with many honors and memories to last a lifetime. As of May 2025, I graduated from Metropolitan Community College with my Associate in Arts degree and will continue that education by majoring in Journalism at Missouri State University. I have never been more in love with what I get to do, the people I meet and work with, and learning more everyday.