Tinah Ogalo
Hometown: Sicklerville, NJ
Undergraduate Major: Journalism & Media Studies
Tinah Ogalo came to Columbia Journalism School with a single goal in mind: To be the person who’s asking the interesting questions.
What led you to journalism? Was there a moment when you knew this was the work you wanted to do?
By chance, I happened to walk into an information session on the journalism program at Rutgers University. One of the professors and the director of the department were explaining what you could do with a journalism degree, and everything clicked for me. I was brought to tears. It encompassed everything I was passionate about.
What drew you to Columbia, and how did you imagine this experience would shape your storytelling?
I graduated from Rutgers during the pandemic, so I took whatever job I could get afterwards. I did everything under the sun. Copywriting, marketing, podcast engineering. As a producer at MTV, I traveled the world to basically make TikToks with, like, cows and bananas. It was so much fun. But I realized two things: my resume didn’t show enough journalism and I wanted to be on camera, not behind the scenes. “You know what?” I said, “Maybe it’s time to go back to school.” I only applied to Columbia, being the only Ivy with a journalism school. If it’s meant to be, it’ll be, I thought.
Has there been a moment at Columbia that’s really stayed with you, something that changed how you think about reporting or storytelling?
My whole experience in the program so far has shown me that everyone does have a story. Reporting is about actually talking to a person to see what they’re about. And it’s definitely put me out of my comfort zone to talk to someone as a journalist.
Tell us about a recent story or project that’s meant the most to you. What drew you to it, and what did you take away from it?
In one class, I was supposed to write a story on the election, but I was struggling. I talked to my professor, and she asked me, “Let’s do a story that you’re interested in. What’s going on? Are there any events you’d want to cover?” There were. I reported on the history of Oktoberfest, and how it came to New York, from a spot in Greenpoint that does an authentic celebration, with beer imported from Germany and a polka band on stage. I stuck out like a sore thumb in my skirt and cowboy boots, but it was fun to talk to people and be in that environment. Mostly, I appreciated that my professor was willing to listen to me say, “This is what I like and I want to write about it.”
What kinds of stories feel most urgent or meaningful for you to tell right now?
Ultimately, I want to be an on-air host, specifically at the intersection between entertainment and sports. I want to sit down with a Joe Burrow or a Timothée Chalamet. But I think those sorts of stories need to be told in different ways. Erin Lim, for example, hosts The Rundown and she’s innovative in that she shows there are other ways to do culture journalism that aren’t exploitative.
When you think ahead, what kind of journalist do you hope to become, or what kind of impact do you hope your work will have?
I want to be the kind of journalist that showcases people’s passions. When I finish an interview, I want to feel like both myself and my viewers have learned something—not just about a specific person, but about life. I want to be the person who’s asking interesting questions.
