NC Journalist of the Year Interviews
Janie Sircey – 2011
Where are you now (in your writing, career, education, etc.), and what is your favorite part of what you do?
I am the Digital Marketing Manager for the Americas region at the LEGO Group. I run the LEGO YouTube channel for the US, Canada and Latin America. My favorite part of what I do – in my time at the LEGO Group, I have fallen in love with content production. I’ve always leaned more into the creative side of my roles throughout my career, and with this job, I’m able to provide creative direction and support directly with our partners and agencies. I’m a nerd at heart and have always been a huge LEGO fan, so having the opportunity to work alongside, and create content with, amazing creative partners like Disney and Lucasfilm is a dream come true.
How has scholastic media shaped your journey as a writer and a professional?
Through journalism, I sharpened my skills as a communicator. In my career, I have drawn from my time as a student journalist to pinpoint better ways to ask questions, to dig deeper into projects, to take out bias in everyday communication and to look at a situation from all sides. All of these skills have proven essential throughout my career.
Did you participate in any of NCSMA’s outreach programs (J-day, NCSMI, Carolina Sports Journalism Camp, NCCMA, etc.), and if so, what impact did that have on your journalism?
Yes, I attended NCSMI, I was the student president of NCSMA, and I was part of the Chuck Stone Program. At NCSMI, I was part of The Rush staff, pulling together a newspaper during the time of the conference. The literal rush I got from reporting and writing stories on tight timelines contributed to my career path in social media and real-time marketing. I still love the thrill of completing tasks quickly, whether that be live onsite for things like SXSW and Comic Con or virtually for daily projects and meetings. The Chuck Stone Program taught me how to effectively eliminate bias in my reporting and to see a situation from all different angles. I will be forever grateful for my experience with the program and the skills I learned, which I try to put into practice every day.
What advice would you give high school students who are in or want to get involved in scholastic journalism?
I would encourage all students to get involved in some way with scholastic journalism, even if journalism isn’t their intended career path. The skills I learned in my time as a student journalist, I use every single day in my marketing/production career.
What do you want to do more of in the future (either professionally or just for fun)?
Education has always been a passion point of mine, and I would love the opportunity to work with students more. I am always available for a coffee chat for anyone looking for advice or guidance in the marketing space or just with navigating classes in general.
Do you have any anecdote that comes to mind that describes your journey, how journalism has shaped you as a person, or what you feel the power of journalism is?
Journalism is constantly evolving. Even from when I was in high school, the mediums in which we consume news have changed drastically. But the core of journalism – finding the truth without bias – has grown more and more important. Personally, I try to live by that core in my professional and personal life.
Arabella Saunders – 2018
Where are you now in your writing, career, education, etc., and what is your favorite part of what you do?
I’m a senior journalism and English double major at UNC-Chapel Hill. My first two years at UNC, I had the opportunity to write for The Daily Tar Heel. After the pandemic started, I moved back home for online classes and became interested in freelance journalism. I came across most of these freelance opportunities through some amazing classes and professors at the Hussman School. I’ve since reported for publications such as VICE News, HuffPost, INDY Week, North Carolina Health News and more. I’m currently taking Media Hub, my capstone course for my journalism major, and it’s one of my favorite classes ever. My favorite part of what I do is all the amazingly unique people I get to meet and the important and interesting stories these people allow me to tell. Last week, I got to go jump in a 40-degree lake for a story I’m working on about scuba diving, so I feel like my life stays pretty interesting because of journalism.
How has scholastic media shaped your journey as a college student and as a writer?
Like I said before, the journalism school at UNC has provided me with so many amazing opportunities for storytelling. From classes to mentorship from my professors, I’m extremely grateful for everything the school has taught me the past four years.
Did you participate in any of NCSMA’s outreach programs (J-day, NCSMI, Carolina Sports Journalism Camp, NCCMA, etc.), and if so what impact did that have on your journalism?
Sadly, I did not. But I’d be interested in participating this year if there’s still any left!
What advice would you give high school students who are in or want to get involved in scholastic journalism?
Get involved! Like really involved. I think scholastic journalism is something where you get out as much as you’re willing to put in. It can be challenging, but it’s also so fun and rewarding.
Where do you see yourself going after college, and where do you want to end up?
I’d like to work as a reporter after college. I love to write, so anything that involves lots of writing will make me happy.
Do you have any anecdote that comes to mind that describes your journey, how journalism has shaped you as a person, or what you feel the power of journalism is?
Journalism has taught me how important it is to listen to and genuinely care about peoples’ stories. Last semester, I spent some time talking to a woman about her son who had recently passed for a story I was working on. She sent me a Christmas card and it’s still hanging on my fridge.
Lauren Stepp – 2014
Where are you now (in your writing, career, education, etc.), and what is your favorite part of what you do?
I am currently a freelance journalist and copywriter. On the editorial side, I write for several lifestyle magazines in my small city of Hendersonville, North Carolina, (e.g. Bold Life, Asheville Made, Carolina Home + Garden) and serve as the history columnist for The Laurel of Asheville. I also contribute to Smoky Mountain Living and Blue Ridge Outdoors, both of which are distributed up and down the East Coast. On the copywriting side, I generate 60,000+ words of website, blog, and email copy each month for businesses across the country. The businesses range from senior living communities to mortgage lenders.
As a freelancer, no two days are the same and I love that. I love that I get to write about gnarly mountain biking trails on Tuesday and the benefits of assisted living on Wednesday. I never get bored because I am always learning.
I got married to my wife, Ashley, last March. Six months later, we purchased acreage in Burnsville, a tiny town nestled in the Black Mountains of North Carolina. We haven’t moved out there yet but are currently working to build a tiny (think: 120-square-foot) house and sustainable homestead. My goal is to eventually write a book about our messy journey to mortgage-free living.
How has scholastic media shaped your journey as a writer and a professional?
I owe everything to my high school newspaper adviser, Brenda Gorsuch. Mrs. Gorsuch taught me how to write a strong and compelling narrative. Thanks to her guidance, I began my freelancing career at 15 years old. I was in my sophomore year of high school and had spent hours cold-calling a slew of local publications. Finally, a weekly newspaper in Hendersonville agreed to let me cover a wine festival. (You can read more about that experience here.)
After seeing my byline in a “real” publication, I was hooked. Today, 10 years later, writing is my sole source of income. I couldn’t have done that without Mrs. Gorsuch.
Did you participate in any of NCSMA’s outreach programs (J-day, NCSMI, Carolina Sports Journalism Camp, NCCMA, etc.), and if so what impact did that have on your journalism?
Yes, I participated in NCSMI and worked on The Rush staff. Putting together a publication so quickly gave me a taste of something I experience all the time as a professional freelancer: tight deadlines.
This past December, for example, I was approached by a client to produce a 40,000-word website in 10 days. (For comparison, Animal Farm is 29,966 words.) I was able to tackle this big project (and others like it) because of the work ethic I developed while on the staff of The Rush and my high school newspaper, Wingspan.
What advice would you give high school students who are in or want to get involved in scholastic journalism?
Not every student who works on their high school paper is going to grow into a professional journalist. I have friends from high school who are now lawyers, geologists, and event planners. They aren’t working for CNN (and neither am I, for that matter), but the writing skills we developed working for Wingspan are indispensable to each of our careers.
All this to say, my piece of advice would be this: Writing is universal. No matter what profession you ultimately choose, being able to write will propel you forward. So, listen to your newspaper adviser and take each assignment seriously. Even if you don’t have plans to work for The New York Times, there is intrinsic value in knowing how to produce a compelling narrative.
What do you want to do more of in the future (either professionally or just for fun)?
In the past year, I have started writing personal essays for Blue Ridge Outdoors. It has been super fun to reflect on my adventures (and misadventures) in the Appalachian Mountains and develop a more intimate writing voice. I would like to write more first-person essays in the future.
Personally, I am always looking for my next adventure. My wife and I spend our free time mountain biking gnarly single-track and hiking footpaths in the backcountry. I am always looking to do more of that!
Do you have any anecdote that comes to mind that describes your journey, how journalism has shaped you as a person, or what you feel the power of journalism is?
I have been freelancing for local publications since I was 15. However, after graduating from college, I was scared to take the plunge and pursue freelancing as a full-time job. (Freelance income comes in waves. Plus, no health insurance!) Instead, I took a series of administrative-type jobs that didn’t challenge or nourish me. I would spend eight hours filing invoices or scheduling meetings while daydreaming about writing.
When the pandemic hit, I decided to make a change. I left my full-time job and dove headfirst into writing. The first year was rough. I was barely clearing enough to pay rent, so I had to pick up a part-time job washing dishes in a kitchen. It wasn’t glamorous—I spent many nights scrubbing salmon off pots—but it gave me the time to acquire more clients. By October 2021, I had enough projects to leave the restaurant gig.
The moral of this story is if you want something badly enough, you will make it work. This same thinking is what motivated my wife and me to build a tiny, debt-free home in Burnsville. We want to have the financial means to pursue our passions.
The following audio interviews were edited for length and clarity:
Ashleigh Fields – 2019
Where are you now in your writing, career and education? And what is your favorite part of what you do?
So, I’m currently a junior journalism major at Howard University. And up until this point, I feel like I’ve been growing and developing in my writing skills. I’m a two-time self-published author, which happened in high school. But after that, I went on to be a fellow at The Business Today journalism publication at Princeton University … I am also editor-in-chief of a newspaper at Howard University. It’s called The Hilltop, and it is the oldest and largest African American newspaper at a college or university, so we’re very proud of that … I’ve previously served as campus editor and then a staff writer before that, so the buildup has been amazing. We’ve had a lot of national news this year, which I feel like has taught me a lot.
How has scholastic media shaped your journey as a college writer and just a writer in general?
My experiences over the summer with the staff at The Eagle, which is the newspaper at East Mecklenburg High School, was absolutely amazing. I mean, being on the campus of Chapel Hill, along with the history and the legacy of journalism that the institution has, that opens just so many doors. And when I was in workshops with different professors from the Hussman School of Journalism at the NCSMA summer program, I really was just exposed to what it means to tell a story from different perspectives, whether it’s on camera or in print. And I was even able to interview college students for a package at that time. I’m really into broadcast and how it’s programmed, and broadcast doesn’t really start till later on in your matriculation. So, I was really thankful to have those, those lessons to fall back and rely on.
What advice would you give to high school journalists who are in or want to get involved in scholastic journalism?
I would definitely say be patient and be purposeful, especially with the stories that you pick. Choose the ones that really speak to you and that you feel comfortable and interested in investigating. Be really, you know, I guess aware, especially of like your campus in the area that you’re hoping to write about or cover. And just have fun because while you’re writing, you get to see new things, express new things. And it helps add to you as a person based on the experiences that you can draw from, so, I mean, that would be my advice.
Where do you see yourself going after college? And where do you want to end up?
I definitely see myself, hopefully, maybe moving to Chicago. I don’t know why. But I just have been so interested in Chicago lately. And they have a rich history in African American media all together, whether it’s radio broadcast or print. I would really like to move there after graduating, but also, eventually, I’d like to own my own media conglomerate. I’m really excited to just get the skills and gain the knowledge I need to really build that up for myself.
Do you have any anecdote that comes to mind that describes your journey, how journalism has shaped you or what you feel the power of journalism is?
I would say read write run, and I can do that pretty quick. But I guess that’s my mantra. I think for life because first I think reading and writing is just the fundamental skill that every person should have. And it just expands your experience so much. But I will also say that the run adds on to that because you can just go and propel forward. But also, I love to read. I’m an avid writer, reader, advocate and I also love to run. I ran track at Howard University for the first two years here. Those are some of my experiences, my passions…
transcribed by https://otter.ai
Ari Sen – 2016
Where are you now in your writing, career and education?
Yeah, so I’m doing a lot of things. I’m currently in Berkeley, California, doing a master’s at the Berkeley journalism school, so that’s kind of the first thing I’m doing. I’m in my second year, so I’m going to be graduating in May. And here I’m working on a thesis project. It’s like a 5000-word investigative story related to a particular surveillance technology. That’s kind of my primary aim at the moment is to work on that. And then I’m also currently working part time at the Dallas Morning News as a freelance investigative reporter. And then I’ll soon be transitioning into a full-time role as what they call a computational journalist, which is basically doing the marriage of data science, data analytics, with investigative reporting. The thesis is going to be published with them. I’m also working on two other investigative projects with them, kind of broadly related to the criminal justice system in Texas.
And what is your favorite part of what you do?
I mean, there’s so much great stuff. I mean, the thing that really drew me to journalism is that you’re constantly learning new stuff every day. And it’s kind of an area, particularly investigative reporting where can pick something that you’re really interested in, and just really go deep and explore your curiosity. I really like that aspect of it. Like I said, I’m going to be a computational journalist. I’ve really been digging into the technical parts of the reporting recently, and those are really starting to fascinate me, as well, ways we can apply technology to tell stories that, even 10 years ago, would have been impossible. So those are kind of my two big things. I also just love that the impact that investigative reporting can have on the world, the things we write can get people fired and change laws, it can change policies at big companies. I just think that’s a really special and amazing field to be in.
When you talk about the marriage of data science and technology with investigative journalism, what type of technology are you working with?
I started doing data journalism when I was an undergrad. I did it at UNC in the journalism school, your standard Excel sort of stuff. And then you’ll do … SQL, Excel and SQL are kind of where I started. And then I really started getting to programming in Python. Now that’s where my heart lies—writing a lot of Python code. And then using sort of standard data analysis libraries and Python. Where I’m trying to go with my career is moving into more machine learning and AI stuff in journalism, which is sort of a burgeoning area in the field. This can be everything from simple regressions to really sort of fancy text analysis stuff. Those are kind of the day-to-day tools of the job, from a technical perspective.
That was really one of the reasons why I wanted to come here to Berkeley. So, at Berkeley, in addition to doing my master’s, I also just completed a program called the graduate certificate in Applied Data Science. And basically, it’s like three or four courses that you take, and they’re either in the School of Information or cross-listed with computer science. They’re very highly technical courses. And it was really cool because I was the first journalism student to go through that program. I think previously people have been somewhat daunted by all the technical material that was involved. I just wrapped that up last semester. But yeah, it’s really a marriage of computer science and journalism. And we have such great talent here at Berkeley in both of those fields, so I’m just trying to soak up as much as possible before I move to Dallas in June.
Did scholastic media shape your journey as a writer and a professional?
I mean the whole reason I’m doing journalism now is because I had such a fantastic journalism teacher in high school, and also got really lucky in that my little school in western North Carolina happened to have, arguably, the best scholastic journalism program in the entire country. I got into journalism because I thought it was an area where I could sort of explore my curiosity. And I remember at the end of middle school being curious about technology and being curious about lots of different things and topics. When I got into the journalism classroom, I got to explore both of those things. It was like building the website and redesigning things and learning InDesign. And writing wise there weren’t really many limits as to what you could and couldn’t write about. And that was really exciting. I had a lot of great support from my high school journalism teacher, Brenda Gorsuch, who gave a lot of tough love at times but was just incredibly supportive of me. And that’s really where I started to cut my teeth with news writing and then eventually data and investigative work, which is what I do now.
In my senior year, I wrote a story, which is kind of all over the place if you look back at it, but it was really my first dip into both the data and the investigative worlds. In the 1970s our high school had a race riot, and that was something that people just didn’t know anything about. I wanted to explore the question of whether that could still happen in the present day, and then also take a look at the demographics of the school and why the county was so segregated. I was taking statistics at the time. And I remember trying to use the stuff that I was learning in statistics in that story and trying to weave everything together. I don’t know how successful it was, but it was a it was a great dipping of my toe in the water in both investigative and data reporting, which is what I ended up doing professionally.
Are research methods and qualitative study important to your work in journalism?
Absolutely. They are some of my biggest influences in journalism. In UNC’s Journalism school where I did my undergrad, I took Ryan Thornburg’s State of Journalism class. And on the first day of class, he read about a guy named Philip Meyer, who invented the whole field of data journalism. And his whole idea was that the way we do journalism now is bogus. And “by now” he was talking about like the late 60s, but it’s still very applicable today. He said we should approach journalism as if it were science, which means investigating stories using the scientific method. So, observing the world, generating hypotheses, figuring out ways to test those hypotheses both qualitatively and quantitatively. And then reporting your findings to the world. And that’s definitely the process that I follow today. It’s very much like science for me. I know that’s not everyone’s process. But that’s really the approach that I like to take with my work.
What advice would you give to high school students who are in or want to get involved in scholastic journalism?
There are so many different places that you can go with that question. I guess maybe being driven by your curiosity, like I was. If you’re in the journalism world there’s so many amazing things to explore, and people have such interesting and diverse life experiences. They come up with really interesting ideas. Really lean into your curiosity, and try to find something that you’re really invested in or passionate about to write about because that’s the thing that will sustain you in the long run.
More practical advice, I would definitely recommend that everybody try to get some knowledge of statistics or technology or coding because I think even in my newsroom and the Dallas Morning News, there’s so little literacy on those things … We’re trying to staff up slowly, but getting literate in those sorts of technologies at an early age is a superpower. Everyone’s trying to hire a data reporter right now. It’s a very competitive market. And so, in terms of practical things, that’s what I would recommend.
Also reading a lot. That’s really important. You know, podcasts and audiobooks count too. Read the writers you like, read The New Yorker or the Atlantic or your local paper or whatever it is for you. Just be reading all the time. I think that’s super important if you want to really grow as a writer. All I do every day is read documents. On my little time off, I try to read more broadly. So, I think those are the kind of core pieces of advice that I would give to high schoolers.
Did you participate in any of NCSMA’s programs like NCSMI or the Carolina Sports Journalism Camp?
I went to the Chapel Hill conferences. I went probably two or three years. I think it was two years in a row: the summer after my sophomore year and the summer after my junior year. And then I came back to get the award the summer after my senior year, as well.
What did you feel the benefit was of doing Journalist of the Year?
First of all, it was a good chunk of money for college, and I think I actually used that to buy my computer, which was super nice throughout school. That was a big plus, but it was also just kind of interesting to kind of look back on all the work you’ve done. And sort of retrospect on it and really think about its strengths. It was also an opportunity in building a portfolio to exercise your creativity. One of the things that I did, which I think maybe made me stand out was when we had to show some examples of editing. I think most people would just send a picture of a piece of paper with marks all over it. And what I did is I took a screen recording of me editing in Google Docs, and then I played it on two times speed. And that was my editing sample. People could see the whole process that I went through editing that draft. Those are editing skills that I’m still using today at Berkeley. I also got some experience in web design, building a website with WordPress, which I built up a little bit in college as well. All of those were benefits of doing a portfolio.
Where do you want to end up in the future, if you have any kind of larger goal or aspiration in mind?
I’ve really been lucky. I’m doing the kind of work that I want to be doing. I want to do big national stories. And I want to do big national investigative stories, where I marry the use of sophisticated technology with traditional investigative methods. Specifically, I want to focus on things like surveillance, things like privacy issues and things like AI accountability. I have these skills in AI now, which are very rare in newsrooms today, and I think that puts me in a good position to understand at a more technical level, the way these algorithms work and the way that they shape our world in both positive and negative ways. So that’s something I’m trying to do now. But it’s something I’d like to really get more into. If I could do that at a big national scale for a big national organization, that that would really be the dream for me.
transcribed by https://otter.ai