Ariel Ritchin '16 M.S.
I've had two great seminar and production classes here. The first one I took was a four-month radio workshop: every week we produced a show in an “All Things Considered”-style format. I’d get an assignment at 7 a.m. and went out and reported, produced and it’d be on the air at 4 p.m. To be able to turn around a story like that really taught me how to work under pressure. I was also able to do more ambitious feature stories and work with four different professors in that class -- that meant four editors working on my projects.
I came into the school with zero intention of doing radio, but during the August boot camp I came to really love it. I had a pretty good idea of how to write a print story when I came in, but audio storytelling classes have expanded my ability to report and interview. We're in a time now where journalists have to have more than one specialty, to really be multimedia storytellers. I knew that this was my time to try new things and make mistakes. School gave me the space to push myself to try something new.