When the opportunity to run for the ONA board came up, I was giddy at the chance. I joined ONA near the end of my time as an undergraduate at the Missouri School of Journalism, attended my first conference (and was part of the student newsroom) in 2009 and have been active in the organization since. Though my first post-graduate home didn't have a local ONA chapter, it
Please donate to help the people of Joplin, Mo. rebuild their city. Every penny helps. (Image via Newseum)
This post is - and isn't - about journalism. Six months ago today, I started my job at POLITICO, covering the moment-to-moment developments of the 2012 presidential race. If you know me well, or even just a little bit, you know that I love campaigns and elections and have always aimed to do this kind of reporting. So, when the chance came to work for a company that I have always admired, I leapt.
Robert Krulwich, to the Berkley Graduate School of Journalism: So for this age, for your time, I want you to just think about this: Think about NOT waiting your turn. Instead, think about getting together with friends that you admire, or envy. Think about entrepeneuring. Think about NOT waiting for a company to call you up. Think about not giving your heart to a bunch of adults you don’t know. Think about horizontal loyalty. Think
Six months ago this week, I left my hometown of Kansas City to Washington D.C. to come play in the big leagues of national political reporting. Today, one of my favorite sports writers Joe Posnanski, penned a fabulous farewell column to Kansas City that sums up exactly what I love and miss about it. You should read the whole thing (twice), but here's my favorite excerpt: "Sure, people in Kansas City are nice. But I think there’s
My college experience could best be described as a marathon that became a sprint: I graduated in less than 4 years with enough credits to complete two majors and enough hours spent in the newsroom to qualify as a full-time job. How it happened and why I did it? I didn't go into college planning to leave in less than the routine four years. I attended the Missouri School of Journalism and entered college with sophomore standing due
On 9/11/2001, I was in eighth grade. I got one stolen glance of the towers falling from a TV screen in my homeroom and called my mother, telling her "I want to come home." I attended a small, private Catholic middle school in Kansas City, where teachers herded students into rooms without televisions and didn't answer questions about what was going on. Instead, they unsuccessfully tried to redirect our attention onto an upcoming biology test. When I got
In case you missed it, the Online News Association will hold its next conference in San Francisco. Sound familiar? That's because we did it already in 2009. In between the two California stops, the organization will have scheduled two East Coast conference locations (Washington D.C. and Boston). When does this game of bi-coastal ping-pong stop? There's this big expanse of land between California and Boston that includes a handful of the top journalism colleges and universities (Northwestern, Missouri,
When I tell people I get paid to write for a living, I'm often asked what I enjoy reading. I can spout off a list of my favorite journalists in no time, but ask me what I like to read for pleasure and that's a totally different story. I don't get a lot of time to myself, save an hour-long commute to POLITICO's Rosslyn offices, but I do try to read as much as I can.
I’ve spent the last handful of years knee-deep in various levels of government, from Kansas City’s city council, to the Missouri legislature to my current job – covering national campaigns for POLITICO. So it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that I care a lot about government transparency and access to information. To talk about improving government transparency, I have to tell you a story about my grandma. She lives in one of Kansas City’s roughest
