Meet the Students from ASU

— -- Nathan O'Neal, bureau chief, is a junior pursuing a combined bachelor/master degree in broadcast journalism and mass communication. Born and raised in Globe, Ariz., O'Neal served as editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper and reported for his high school newscast, GHS4-TV.

In the summer after his freshman year, O'Neal attended Georgetown University's Institute on Political Journalism while interning in Washington, D.C., at FierceMarkets, a business-to-business digital media company. This re-affirmed his love for the craft as well as secured his most recent internship at the NBC affiliate KPNX-TV in Phoenix. O'Neal is currently working on a documentary as part of his thesis for Barrett, The Honors College at ASU.

Tia Castaneda, grew up in Springfield, Mo., but calls herself an Arizonan at heart. She is pursuing a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism, with a minor in design studies.

Her journalism career began at Gilbert High School, in Gilbert, Ariz., where she produced and reported for the high school newscast for two years.

Castaneda has interned with Empowher.com, a multi-media women's health website, as well as Phoenix CBS affiliate, KPHO, shadowing multiple departments of the newsroom. She is also a multi-media journalist for NewsWatch, the award-winning newscast at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Castaneda recently produced, directed and edited a full-length documentary on the 'Lost Boys of Sudan' for her documentary class at ASU.

Castaneda's passion for sharing stories has continued to grow throughout her education. When she isn't working on her latest story, she can be found biking with her chihuahua and doberman, or exploring The Valley of the Sun.

Siera Lambrecht was born in Seattle but has called the Valley of the Sun home for the past 17 years. She is majoring in broadcast journalism, and her internship at Telemundo solidified her decision to minor in Spanish. Since then, she added a third language, Dutch, while studying communications at the University of Amsterdam. In her ongoing travels, Siera has visited over 20 different countries.

Siera is currently a reporter and anchor for Cronkite NewsWatch, where she has had the honor of interviewing Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; she's also participated in Cronkite NewsWatch en Español as a sports anchor and reporter.

Following her passion for sports journalism, Siera is the producer and host of a 30-minute magazine-style sports show called Sun Devils 101. The show focuses on current and former Arizona State University athletes and airs on Fox Sports Arizona. She has also worked as a multimedia reporter for Friday Night Fever, a high school football show on KPNX-TV, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix. In addition, she facilitates content on a national-scale as the ESPNU campus coordinator and works part-time as an in-studio producer for the ESPN radio-affiliate Sports 620 KTAR.

Once she moved out to Arizona to attend the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU, she began interning during freshman year. During the summer, Smith moved to California for a few months and interned with TMZ where she glimpsed the inner workings of an entertainment newsroom and her passion for journalism grew.

Upon returning to school, Smith interned with The Arizona Republic, Phoenix's leading newspaper, where she served as a breaking news reporter. She later interned with the public relations department at an alternative rock radio station, X103.9.