At the Columbia School of Journalism, I wrote numerous stories on a variety of subjects. I was assigned the south Bronx as my beat for the core fall reporting and writing course (earning honors in this course), covering police, courts, community, business, race, religion and education. In the spring, I focused on sports writing and also dabbled in reviews, profiles, editorials, analysis, opinion and first-person writing under the tutelage of Prof. Judith Crist in her “Personal and Professional Style” course. I was awarding with honors in this course as well.
My articles for the Columbia News Service, syndicated by The New York Times wire, were distributed to newspapers all across the U.S. and Canada. These include outlets such as The Chicago Tribune, The Winston-Salem Journal, The Arizona Daily Star, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Naples Daily News, The Arizona Republic, The Oakland Tribune, The Argus (Fremont, Ca.), Tri-Valley Herald (Pleasanton, Ca.), Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, Pa.), The Chronicle Herald (Halifax, Nova Scotia), Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minn.).
The most comprehensive piece of work I did during the year was the Master’s Project. Under the guidance of Prof. Sylvia Nasar I researched, reported and wrote about the Bronx Zoo and its international conservation efforts. The result is “The Evolution of Zoos – A Century of Conservation,” a 6,500-word study of the changing roles of zoos at the beginning of the 21st Century.