During my time at The City, I worked on a range of projects. I would consider every story I worked on a little mini project with the overarching goal of reaching New Yorkers at the forefront of my mind. I wrote about a range of topics including COVID-19. The City has been a fantastic resource for COVID-19 since the pandemic, and may New Yorkers turn to it as their primary source of information. Having the chance to contribute to such high level reporting was a great opportunity and something I am really proud of. I also wrote about elderly centers incorportating a weekly vegan meal. I went to some centers in person and just speaking with the adults there reminded me of how important local journalism is. This was a big issue for them and the fact a journalist was covering it was monumental for them. My projects at The City were all aligned with the mission of reaching New Yorkers and telling the stories that matter, I believe I worked towards this goal all summer.

My work with The City would simply not have been possible without my degree from Columbia Journalism School. The skills I needed to report, both searching for documents and the skills you need when interviewing and speaking to people in-person, were all skills I gleaned from my time at J-School. I applied these skills every time I picked up the phone or opened my computer to find hidden away documents or contact details. I used my investigative techniques to find deleted content online, for instance. The City has a very unique voice and I learned to adapt to that, but that was only possible because I felt comfortable in my own writing style. My professor from my Opinion Writing class, Issac Bailey, taught me to be confident in my own writing, and that will allow you to better understand a publication's writing style. This definitely helped me in the early days of my internship.

During my time at The City, I faced a number of challenges. Of course, working in a real life newsroom is a big step up from graduate school and deadlines are tighter — you are also publishing for a real audience every time you put a story out. At the beginning these tight deadlines were a source of a little stress, but as the summer went on I began to get into the rhythm of reporting/writing/publishing and alleviated the stress a little. There were times when information was not so readily available and it was difficult to find. During times like this I was grateful for such a supportive working environment and leaned on my colleagues for assistance — everyone helps everyone out, which was great.

A key takeway of my time at The City is that now, more than ever, local journalism needs funding. The City does such phenomenal work and the journalists produce some incredible work, including long form investigations but also the daily news and short form stories illuminate issues that affect the day-to-day lives of New Yorkers. Every day there are emails thanking the writers for their great work. But local, and especially nonproft, publications are struggling. The industry is struggling. Perhaps before The City I would have said that but not really known the true impact of local journalism. If you took away The City, there would be a gaping hole in the coverage of one of the most influential cities in the world. If this is the case in New York, then this must only be amplified in areas where there isn't great amounts of coverage already such as in rural towns.

The world as we know it is rapidly changing, climate change is upon us. But while social media sites have in the past been feeders of news, this is no longer the case. Or certainly they are no longer half as reliable as they used to be. People are turning to new places to get their news and it is now that the journalism industry has the opportunity to reach more people than ever.

The City taught me how important it is to meet readers where they are. New York is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and yet The City has committed coverage of as many communities as it can. Just because it might be difficult to access somewhere or challenging to cover a story doesn't mean it's an excuse not to complete it. There are so many untold stories of historically underreported communities, and The City is doing a great job of making sure that is not happening. That is something I am going to take with me.