About the School

Photo/Claire Holt

Andrea Elliott '99

Reporter, The New York Times, 2007 Pulitzer Prize winner

I will never forget heading up to the Bronx for my first assignment as a Columbia journalism student in 1998. Until that moment, I was uncertain of what I wanted to do with my life.

I had loved working in documentary film, but wanted to learn more about writing and reporting. As I walked around Mott Haven that day, touring my new beat, I felt liberated. No more film crew, just a notepad. I have never looked back.

For the next nine months, I got some of the most skillful editing of my life. I learned to seek out the best stories even if they were also the most complicated, the toughest to report. When I joined The Miami Herald a few months after graduating from the Journalism School, I still had a lot to learn. But I already carried tools that other reporters take years to acquire in the newsroom -- including the experience of having written a 5,000 word story for my master's project.

When I landed at The New York Times in 2003, I headed uptown once again to explore my new beat. I would be covering the Bronx.