Shayla Kuykendall is a creative and ambitious individual from Eagle Lake, TX. Her love for writing sparked her interest in journalism. Being able to formulate questions and piece together information became natural for Shayla and drew her to the media industry.
Shayla graduated from Rice High School in 2014, where she competed in UIL Journalism, an organization she credits as her foundation in journalism. She advanced to regionals twice and even advanced to state after place first in feature writing. She continued her education at Wharton County Junior College where she earned an Associate of Arts degree in 2016. She also graduated from Houston Baptist University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Media in 2018.
While at Houston Baptist University, Shayla created content for publications, digital media, and broadcast news. Within her first semester, she became the Life and Arts Editor of her student newspaper. She had the honor of interviewing Cirque Du Soleil through an internship with Macaroni Kid and expanded her horizon of news through an internship with KPRC 2 News, where she had the opportunity to practice field reporting including at the Houston Astros Parade after their World Series win in 2017.
Throughout her education, Shayla was encouraged by her peers and educators to start a blog. She wanted to create a platform where people would feel engaged, uplifted, and challenged to see how they could make a difference in their community through human-interest stories. In 2019, she launched Intellectual Beats, a media platform dedicated to producing engaging content with the purpose of shining a light on people who are doing extraordinary things in their community.
Like many of you, Shayla understands that navigating through life brings with it ups, downs, and many curveballs. She got certified to teach journalism and then the 2020 pandemic brought things to a halt. With no luck in landing a job at a school district, Shayla felt inspired to go back to school. She enrolled at Texas Southern University and pursued a Master’s in Communications with a concentration in Professional Communication and Digital Media. Her passion for storytelling and writing was reignited. She worked as a communications specialist intern and later transitioned to a digital marketing specialist for a real estate company. Nevertheless, telling stories of those in the community drew Shayla back to posting content on this blog.
Today, Intellectual Beats has branched out into a podcast to help the conversations on this blog be more dynamic. Shayla continues to bring thought-provoking content by featuring in-depth interviews with guests to discuss issues relevant to society and share stories of how they overcame obstacles to get to where they are now, while encouraging you to take the steps needed to succeed along your journey. We hope you join us on this journey of elevating conversations!
