Renee Schmiedeberg

Journalist / Writer

United States

Renee Schmiedeberg is a writer and journalist based in San Diego, California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with an emphasis in Creative Writing from California State University, Long Beach, and three associate degrees in journalism, English literature, and arts/visual studies from San Diego Mesa and Miramar College.

She speaks conversational Cantonese and has beginner level Mandarin.

Her past work includes Long Beach Post, LA Canvas, Locale Magazine, The Mesa Press, Long Beach Union Weekly (renamed 22 West Magazine), DIG Magazine and ThoughtCatalog.

Portfolio

The Mesa Press

The Mesa Press
Expired elevator permits at Mesa's G Building and Student Services Center

Two elevator permits have been expired since June 2019 in Mesa's Humanities and Multicultural Studies Building (G Building) and Student Services Center (I-400), respectively, as confirmed by the State of California Department of Industrial Relations. Both permits say the last date of inspection was June 8, 2018 and expire exactly a year later.

The Mesa Press
Mira Mesa family sews thousands of face masks for San Diegans

Ziploc bags with names - Amelia, Helen, Barbara - are stuck with pins to a brown corkboard displayed in front of a house in Mira Mesa. The board is colorful; inside each bag is electrified Pikachu, Olaf the snowman, moose on lumberjack plaids, and pastel florals.

The Mesa Press
Mesa to hold Virtual Commencement Ceremony in July

San Diego Mesa College President Pamela Luster announced that Mesa and the rest of SDCCD will send off their graduates with a Virtual Commencement Ceremony this year instead of an in-person ceremony to comply with coronavirus safety measures. The announcement was made during Luster's May 6 virtual College Forum.

The Mesa Press
'It's likely we'll be in this position in the fall, perhaps in the spring,' says Chancellor Oakley

California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley responded to growing student concerns over how COVID-19 changes their education in a teleconference meeting that took place mid-April. Extension of distance learning into fall and spring semesters, allocation of funds, and sanitization of campuses were some questions Chancellor Oakley addressed in a teleconference with over a hundred...

The Mesa Press
The impact of Bernie's movement and where we go from here

Bernie Sanders suspended his 2020 presidential campaign in early April, leaving Joe Biden as the last Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election. This was the Brooklyn native's second time running and dropping out of a presidential race. Some say his campaign, a platform that ran on "Medicare for All," a $15 federal minimum wage,...

The Mesa Press
SDCCD online classes will continue through spring and summer

Spring and summer 2020 classes will continue online for the duration of the semester, announced the San Diego Community College District. SDCCD Chancellor Constance M. Carroll expressed that the resolution was made to help in academic planning. The decision was imperative during this time of deep uncertainty, given the ongoing social distancing order amid the...

The Mesa Press
BREAKING: SDCCD moves classes online amid coronavirus

Many SDCCD classes will be transitioning online temporarily for an initial two-week period starting March 16, wrote Mesa College President, Pamela T. Luster, in a campus-wide email sent on the evening of March 11. There have been no confirmations of COVID-19 in the SDCCD. Students will be notified before April 6, the date students return...

The Mesa Press
Diverse casts enhance the themes of fictional works

Fiction has a fantastic purpose. The point of fiction is not to tell a story extremely accurately in the most unimportant ways possible. The point of fiction is to carry a complex message in the most potent and effective way possible. Fiction is not documentary and has never strived to be.

The Mesa Press
Tesla will not save us

Will you save us, oh great and mighty Elon? I shake my Magic 8-Ball once more, and then wait for the blue triangle to surface from the black liquid. Don't count on it. The company website touts, "Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."

The Mesa Press
SDCCD academic calendar changes

This upcoming spring semester will begin in February, a change from previous semesters, which have for years begun in the last week of January. Consequently, the spring semester will run later, ending in early June, the week after Memorial Day. Something students can look forward to with this change is a longer winter break this...

The Mesa Press
American tradition pardons guilty conscience, not turkeys

It's a brisk fall morning in Clinton, North Carolina, though you wouldn't know it from the windowless cement house you live in. The dude in the white suit comes out again, this time grabbing you and another guy from across the barn. You are both transported to various classrooms to be gawked at by school...

The Mesa Press
Ease student stress at the now monthly Comfort Tent

Students have likely seen white tents emitting soothing music in the Learning Resource Center Quad around midterms and finals. But this semester, and hopefully from here on, Comfort Tents will happen once every month. Upon entering, visitors are brought through a short hallway of sign-in sheets, flyers for other similar events and mental health-related resources,...

The Mesa Press
Mesa opens region's first community college foster youth center

This fall semester saw the opening of San Diego Mesa College's Fostering Academic Success & Transitions (FAST) Center. It is the only physical space in a San Diego community college devoted entirely to the needs of foster youth. Instead of bouncing between help desks and counselor's offices, the new FAST Center is the physical manifestation...

The Mesa Press
Lack of regulation makes vapes more dangerous than cigarettes

By now we've all seen that guy: turning a corner in a Midori-green Scion, cracking open the driver's side window to squint through reflective Oakley sunglasses, a floating head in a black beanie emerging from vanilla Smok clouds pouring out the window. I'd put it at around 2014, when I first started noticing vaping become...

The Mesa Press
Red meat consumption is inseparable from Amazon fires

A piece of breaking news in the past month has been the Amazon forest fires. Celebrities across fields of fame have weighed in, from super soccer-player Cristiano Ronaldo to French President Emmanuel Macron. "Our house is on fire" is a popular phrase being used in conjunction with the fires, popularized by 16-year-old Swedish climate activist...

Podcasts / Multimedia

The Mesa Press
Something Newsy Ep. 20 - Times of the 'Rona in San Diego

San Diego's been in quarantine for just a week shy of two months. The county is slowly opening up, but do we as San Diegans feel safe? What's going on with KKK activity in Santee? Who knew there were so many anti-lockdowners in San Diego? And WHAT are we going to do first when all...

The Mesa Press
Something Newsy Ep. 19 - How Coronavirus Will Change Our Lives Forever

We emerge from a month and a half of country-wide coronavirus lockdown to answer the questions on every college student's mind: How do you keep sane during insane times? Can distance learning truly sub for in-person lessons? And finally, how will coronavirus change us forever? Figure this out with us.

The Mesa Press
Something Newsy - Ep. 18 - Quarantine Edition

Keep staying indoors with The Mesa Press's first quarantine podcast episode! Our first remote recording covers the initial week of online classes due to the emergency coronavirus campus shut down! Find out how Mesa students are handling the shut down, indoor corona-free activities, quarantine homecookin', distance socializing (or lack thereof), not working, and undiluted expressions...

Something Newsy
12/14/2019
Something Newsy Podcast Ep. 17

Something Newsy – Episode 17 The Mesa Press Staff December 14, 2019 Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email Is this the I-5 during traffic hour over here? Because this episode features possibly the most students to ever record a single episode of Something Newsy! We start off with thoughts on the apocalypse/climate crisis, veganism, Sea World, animals, and finish up with a passionate and comprehensive review of Mesa’s cafeteria food.

Long Beach Union Weekly, LA Canvas, Long Beach Post, Locale Mag, ThoughtCatalog

Long Beach Union Weekly
2014
Tear Down This Wall

New UAM exhibit features politically charged photographs of post-war Germany

Long Beach Union Weekly
2015
To the Beehive and Back

UAM's new exhibit gives visitors a glimpse into the experience of a bee

Long Beach Post
2017
Creativity Unfolds at the Third Annual Long Beach Zine Fest

Those searching for artistic material unsullied and unfiltered by mass media behemoths will find their cravings satisfied through a new-ish medium: zines! If you haven't yet heard of them, zines are the most honest published material you'll find anywhere (other than your sister's diary of course).

LA Canvas
2017
Stand Out as a Musician by Building a Website

Whether you're an artist, an entrepreneur, a chef, a musician or all of the above-you need a website. With a website, your work, services, and talent are more easily discovered by others. Because hiring your own Web Developer can get pricey, you'll need a website that's affordable and easy to use.

LA Canvas
2017
La Canvas x Squarespace - POMPOM Interview

Interview by Renee Schmiedeberg for LA Canvas and Square Space. "POMPOM" is the whimsical moniker she goes by when she's in LA making music nostalgic for the 80s. Audrey is her name when she's a regular girl visiting her small hometown in Nevada.

Ugly Magazine

Ugly Magazine is a magazine where my team I explore race and beauty, interviewing randomly selected POC at California State University, Long Beach and connecting our findings to scholarly research.

DIG MAG
02/16/2014
Highlights from New York Fashion Week - DIG MAG

Nearly 300 different presentations of fashion fabulousness strutted down the runway last week at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York, setting trends for the fall season. Here's some common threads that were showcased. Oversized Heavy Fabric Sweaters Our first fall trend is oversized sweaters, especially good for the lazy yet fashion hungry.

Long Beach Union Weekly
2014
Normal is Boring

A sharp dresser recounts his journey to self-expression

Product Copywriting

Renee S.
DecoPhone Product Copywriting Pamphlet

For this DecoPhone pamphlet/webpage/advertisement I wrote the copy, designed the page, took photos, and formatted it all in Photoshop. DecoPhone is a product and brand I created on Etsy, a website for buying and selling handmade goods.