My story
Originally from the suburbs of Pittsburgh, I began to fall in love with journalism in high school. I was initially convinced that I wanted to write about sports and remain convinced that the profile I wrote of a soccer star who blew her ACL is one of the better stories I've ever written.
When I was looking at colleges, I didn't initially know what I wanted to do and landed at Ohio University in the Honors Tutorial College's journalism program. Around the same time, I started copy editing at The Post, the school's independent student newspaper. I wasn't particularly involved in anything as a freshman, but by sophomore year had begun writing music reviews in addition to my copy editing duties. In winter quarter (OU was still on a 10-week quarters system instead of semesters, a system that changed with the 2012-13 school year), I began writing feature articles for the culture section.
At the end of my sophomore year, I was selected as culture editor for my junior year of college. I'm not sure I immediately appreciated just how demanding the job would be, but somewhere in between pulling 60-hour weeks at the paper and carrying a 20 credit hour course load (not a wise decision), I began to thrive on the pace of working at the paper. During the summer of 2011, after my junior year, I worked as a features desk intern at Newsday, but around the same time had begun to shift myself out of features and more toward the news side. That transition was furthered along in my senior year when I worked as managing editor of The Post and managed the paper's day-to-day operations.
After graduating, I returned home to Pittsburgh and interned on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's metro desk, an experience that taught me more about journalism, writing and the realities of the profession than anything else to that point. When that internship came to an end, I moved to Wilmington, N.C., and the StarNews, where I started as a transportation and local government and later moved to a public safety reporter position.
For my best work from any of these positions, see the clips section of this site.
Outside of work, I'm a huge sports fan, and I'm from Pittsburgh so of course I root for the Penguins, Pirates and Steelers. In addition, I wake up way too early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to support Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League. I'm also a magazine junkie. Right now, I have subscriptions to — and am trying to keep up with — Texas Monthly, Businessweek, New York, The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, Wired, ESPN, The Atlantic, Popular Science and Rolling Stone.
When I'm on Twitter, I favorite way too many things with the best intentions of tracking back and reading them in a timely manner. I rarely do, and when I do, it's certainly not timely.
I try to stick to AP Style, but believe in the Oxford comma.
When I was looking at colleges, I didn't initially know what I wanted to do and landed at Ohio University in the Honors Tutorial College's journalism program. Around the same time, I started copy editing at The Post, the school's independent student newspaper. I wasn't particularly involved in anything as a freshman, but by sophomore year had begun writing music reviews in addition to my copy editing duties. In winter quarter (OU was still on a 10-week quarters system instead of semesters, a system that changed with the 2012-13 school year), I began writing feature articles for the culture section.
At the end of my sophomore year, I was selected as culture editor for my junior year of college. I'm not sure I immediately appreciated just how demanding the job would be, but somewhere in between pulling 60-hour weeks at the paper and carrying a 20 credit hour course load (not a wise decision), I began to thrive on the pace of working at the paper. During the summer of 2011, after my junior year, I worked as a features desk intern at Newsday, but around the same time had begun to shift myself out of features and more toward the news side. That transition was furthered along in my senior year when I worked as managing editor of The Post and managed the paper's day-to-day operations.
After graduating, I returned home to Pittsburgh and interned on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's metro desk, an experience that taught me more about journalism, writing and the realities of the profession than anything else to that point. When that internship came to an end, I moved to Wilmington, N.C., and the StarNews, where I started as a transportation and local government and later moved to a public safety reporter position.
For my best work from any of these positions, see the clips section of this site.
Outside of work, I'm a huge sports fan, and I'm from Pittsburgh so of course I root for the Penguins, Pirates and Steelers. In addition, I wake up way too early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to support Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League. I'm also a magazine junkie. Right now, I have subscriptions to — and am trying to keep up with — Texas Monthly, Businessweek, New York, The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, Wired, ESPN, The Atlantic, Popular Science and Rolling Stone.
When I'm on Twitter, I favorite way too many things with the best intentions of tracking back and reading them in a timely manner. I rarely do, and when I do, it's certainly not timely.
I try to stick to AP Style, but believe in the Oxford comma.