Heather Leslie is a journalism senior in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. Her outside concentration is in political science.

She was born and raised in Miami. She graduated from American High School in 1999. She first became interested in journalism her junior year, when she became staff writer and photography editor of the newspaper, the Third Century.

Heather has been in Gainesville since. Her first job was as a copy editor for the Independent Florida Alligator. They hired her before she knew anything about Associated Press Style, or even knowing what a copy editor's job entailed.

From there, she worked on desk for a year. After that she moved up the ranks and was editor of the paper during the spring and summer 2003 terms.

Now Heather is concentrating on graduating. This is her first time being a full-time student in a long time, and she is rediscovering the joys of classes and actually studying for exams. Her favorite project so far has been designing her personal Web site.

After graduation, Heather plans on getting a job copy editing at a newspaper.