Matthew A. Lewis …

was working at Intel Corporation as a Manufacturing Technician with the Lithography Operations team. He is on-site at the Ocotillo campus in Chandler, Ariz. Prior to joining Intel, he was a contractor at Intel’s high-volume wafer production factory for about two-years.

Lewis has held variety of other jobs before entering the semiconductor industry. 

He also cherishes his work with the SSP Foundation; which is where he serves as a Special Events Coordinator for the better part of a decade.

Following his Brother and Father is why he initially joined the organization. It was the robotics program that his family was first introduced to the SSP Foundation.

Not long after he began volunteering, his role quickly evolved into something more than just a regular volunteer. Lewis was involved with several of SSP Foundation’s programs, including the Youth Soccer League, the S.T.E.M initiatives, and also the Scholar’s Programming.

Lewis has always held many interest, however; and from an early age, he loved to read and write.

In elementary school, he wanted to become a published book author.

Once he realized being an author was a tough, and often not so lucrative career, he decided to look elsewhere; and in high school his English teacher liked his writing and invited him to join the school’s newspaper. From then on, his love of Journalism had sprouted and blossomed.

After high school, Lewis dove deep into the World of Journalism. He joined his college newspaper, majored in Journalism, took on newspaper internships and even was on the executive board of several professional development organizations related to the Journalism profession.

 

For more on The University of Arizona’s School of Journalism please visit:

https://journalism.arizona.edu/

During his senior year as an undergraduate student, Lewis was selected by a panel of journalists at The New York Times (from among a national pool of student members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists) to participate in a two-week student journalism institute.

During his time at the UA, he tutored and mentored students as an Einstein Protégé for a general education course.

He also supervised and taught students with learning challenges; including a kindergarten class at D.W. Higgins Institute,  a (now defunct) charter school in Tempe, Ariz.

Lewis was a student leader in the School of Journalism and beyond. He would constantly assist other students with course work to improve their educational opportunities, as well as his own.

He served as a counselor and lead mentor for the Dow Jones Diversity in Journalism Workshop for Arizona High School Students for four years while in college.

The workshop was where he developed a passion for education. It was during his tenure at the workshop he became determined to cover the education beat or work in education and do freelance journalism on the side.

Before graduating he worked for the college newspaper the Arizona Daily Wildcat. The “Arizona Daily Wildcat” was named Best College Newspaper by Princeton Review’s “THE BEST 361 COLLEGES, 2006 EDITION.”

While at the Wildcat, he had several stories picked up by the College edition of the Huffington Post (or HuffPost College). Here is a link to one of the stories that got picked up by the aggregation site. It also ran on David Hasselhoff’s website.

Lewis has also worked at the two largest daily newspapers in Tucson, Ariz. (The Arizona Daily Star and Tucson Citizen) – and a lifestyles magazine (Tucson Lifestyle).

He also worked for a community newspaper north of the Tucson area (San Manuel Miner).

Lewis wrote two stories for the Arizona Daily Star that were picked up by the Associated Press (AP) wire service: one about a Bosnian refugee opening a local restaurant and another about a dachshund named Poppy who was racing in a regional Wienerschnitzel Wiener Dog race.

While at the Tucson Citizen, he wrote a story about the regional science fair, which appeared on the front page of the print edition.

In college Lewis served as the Vice President of the Society of Professional Journalists. He also served as the VP of the Journalism Student Advisory Council and was a member of various other organizations.

Lewis is a graduate of the University of Arizona (UA). He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and a minor in geography in the spring of 2010. After graduating, he worked for a daily and weekly newspaper chain (Casa Grande Valley Newspapers, Inc.) covering central Arizona for about a year.

After covering education-related stories and serving as a mentor for a journalism workshop, Lewis wanted to get more involved with teaching and decided to go back to school. He decided to pursue a one-year-fast-track Masters of Education degree through the UA’s Graduate College of Education. However, life and work took Lewis on a divergent path, and after about a year of Graduate studies he left the program.

Lewis’s recent memberships are with the UA’s Alumni Association, and the SSP Foundation. His other most recent volunteer and service positions include serving as the Co-Secretary for the UA – Phoenix Chapter Young Alumni Club and as a member of the East Valley Cats (a UA Alumni group based in the East Valley). And even more still, he has held affiliations with the following: the National Association of Black Journalists;  The Human Rights Campaign; the National Association of Hispanic Journalists; and the UA Future Teachers Club.

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