I’m a budding journalist in New York City eager to break into the industry. I’ve worked as a News and Features Reporter for The New School Free Press, a student-run newspaper, for about a year and a half. I am set to graduate from Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School with a BA in Journalism & Design in May (2024).
Though I love long-form investigative journalism and features, I’m experienced with breaking news & quick turnarounds— if the breaking piece leads to a follow-up or better yet, a tip for a new story— I am overjoyed.
Out of respect for the art form, I would never call myself a photographer, but I always have my camera on hand. I have some experience with audio and video editing, and as a consumer, I always appreciate a journalist who takes a multi-media approach to a story.
Now more than ever, with a news stream saturated with fearmongering, burnout, and overall news avoidance, it’s crucial that we as journalists get creative and deliver news in ways that break the boundaries of traditional reporting.
Features
March 2023
April 2023
I woke up to a call from my editor in the middle of the night. Fifteen minutes later, I found myself on the curb of 301 Residence Hall, pajamas and all.
As I was stepping out of a cab, I saw one of my primary sources standing in the lobby. She snuck me into a Resident Assistants meeting and gave me exclusive access to information and contacts.
I attached a mini-podcast that I made and edited for a Radio Documentary class. It’s far from perfect, but it was my first time experimenting with audio.
October 2023
March 2024
This was the most intimidating piece to publish, both in terms of the fear of retaliation from the university, and the potential danger my sources could face. That said, the fear was far outweighed by the immense responsibility I felt to represent the situation accurately.
This was my first time getting the green light to work with anonymous sources— many of whom were reluctant to speak at all for fear of their safety. It took time (and numerous off-the-record coffee chats) to earn their trust. This in turn sparked a whole new fear— that my sources would feel misrepresented and/or exploited for content.
I was met with a huge wave of gratitude post publishing which was not only a relief, but such an honor, especially since my sources had put their jobs in jeopardy and potentially their safety. I was determined to make their sacrifices worthwhile. I am so proud of them, and I am truly proud of this piece.
It was it was an honor to tell this story.
Blake Eskin, a former professor of mine, came up to me and said “The piece made me outraged. It didn’t tell me to be outraged, but that was the feeling it evoked.” which, as a journalist, may be one of the most meaningful compliments Ive ever received.
This was the first piece I worked on for the Free Press, and I am still quite proud of it. I spoke to as many students as possible, gathered sources through word of mouth and social media, marched over to the local Fire Department to get the scoop, and worked with the university building manager to set the story straight.
The story originated from a plethora of pretty convincing rumors online that I extensively researched and eventually ended up dispelling. I am proud of the style that I used, inspired by a David Remnick article that I can’t quite remember, I separated the story into “acts”, and to my surprise, my editor didn’t cut them. I felt that it made such a long piece (actually one of the longest pieces the Free Press had published at the time) accessible and interesting to students. I was able to write in my preferred narrative style and turned what would have been a 300-word breaking piece into a long-form feature article.
While USC may be known for its admissions scandals, and Harvard for its business program, The New School has garnered quite a portfolio of strikes over the past few years. I’ve been freelancing this semester, so I had the freedom to write a story that was less about the strike itself, but the reaction from those paying the tuition— whose opinions turned out to be a bit controversial to say the least.
Due to the online backlash, the sources received for their strong-worded opinions, I was expecting at least one or two parents to berate me for the piece. I was surprised when my Facebook messages were filled with gratitude for giving the parents a voice and sharing their unfiltered opinions.
This article was a huge lesson in working with quote-heavy, opinion-based content, and turning it into something that still classifies as news. I had to weave together these polarizing statements without making it seem as though favored either side, which was much more grueling than I anticipated. With a piece like this one, the structure itself can present as biased which was a tricky thing to navigate, especially when trying to maintain a cohesive narrative throughout the article.
Breaking News
April 2023
September 2023
April 2024
I was sitting in the cafeteria of the University Center when the fire alarms started ringing through the halls. Coincidentally, I was working on a story about a fire at a Residence Hall, which was notorious for regular false fire alarms. I followed the crowd of students as we evacuated the building, snapped a few photos, and gathered a few student quotes before marching straight to the local fire station— this was a frequent occurrence at this point in time— to try and get the scoop straight from the mothership.
The piece was edited and published an hour and a half after the incident occurred.
This was a double byline, my friend and colleague Isabella Gallo was sitting with me at the cafeteria at the time, and she helped to gather more student quotes after the fact and stuck around the University to see if she could speak to the responding officers.
I got a call from my editor, at around 9 pm as per usual, about a petition milestone. Upon first glance, I learned that it was regarding the NewSWU (New School Student Workers Union), so I called up Isabella Gallo, who was the leading reporter turned expert on all union activity to make sure that the piece represented the situation accurately.
In an attempt to maintain the accuracy of our original headline, “… reaches 100 signatures”, the story was written and edited within the hour. (“…petition reaches 113 signatures” isn’t as catchy as an even “100” right?). Of course, moments before hitting publish, we refreshed the petition to see a new signature, so we had to find a loophole— hence the “over 100 signatures”.
This was my most recent article that covered for the Free Press, I have a great contact who is the Vice President of Building Management & Operations. He’s always been one of my most prolific sources and gave me a ton of intel, I was the first to break the news so that was awesome.
I am working on a follow-up that will include student opinions from current residents, past residents, and alumni, as well as staff and hopefully some anonymous RA’s.
For the past six months, I’ve been working on an article addressing and investigating the new policies that I mentioned throughout the piece, but we wanted to dispel some of the rumors that have been going around in a timely manner.