JOURNALISM.
The Daily Iowan is the University of Iowa’s newspaper, which competes with the other major newspapers in the entire state. For two years, I wrote an average of three news articles per week, which included communicating with editors, finding content, attending pitch meetings, interviewing sources, promoting articles via social media, and writing articles under tight deadlines. For a while I stayed on the city council beat, where I attended city council meetings and wrote 3-4 briefs per meeting.
One year, I participated in the time-honored DI tradition of reporting on Dance Marathon, a 24-hour celebration to raise money for children’s hospitals and health care. I wrote eight articles over the period of time, focusing on rapid, accurate reporting.
Eventually, I switched to in-depth project reporting. Instead of writing several articles per week, I researched complicated topics and produced long-form articles. Many of these received state-wide attention, and one profile won several national awards.
In my time with the Daily Iowan I interviewed the Iowa Secretary of State, secured 10 front-page articles in one semester, and wrote an article that reached over 10,000 views online.