Kerry Sheridan '02 |
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Editor, Middle East bureau, Agence France Presse; Author, Bagpipe Brothers I didn't have a mentor early in my career, and although I knew I wanted to be a journalist, I didn't really know how to go about it. By the time I applied to Columbia, I had been working mainly on the marketing side of newspapers for a few years and I was desperate to make the definitive switch over to the editorial side. I wanted a transformative experience, and I got one. At the Journalism School, I learned how to work in radio and how to report and shoot video for television news. I learned narrative skills from Professor Sam Freedman, and published my first book after graduation. I ventured often into neighborhoods I would never have dared penetrate before, testing the classroom ideals of ethics, resolve, fairness and accuracy in real-life settings. Our group, the class of 2002, became known as the 9-11 class, because the World Trade Center attack occurred about a month after we began the program. We were student journalists covering the world's biggest story, and not just the event itself, but its myriad effects on the city in the extended aftermath. And so when I think back on that year, I know that everything that I learned at Columbia has invariably been helpful in my career. In fact, I cringe when I recall how, before moving to New York to attend J-School, I asked an alum at a San Francisco gathering if she could list for me the top three things she learned at the Journalism School. She didn't answer me, and later I learned why. There isn't a top three, but there may be a top 3,000. Read more about Kerry... |
Photo/Claire Holt
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