My Story
I feel obligated to address the elephant in the room: how I’ve been able to work with Gizmodo, MSNBC, and Bloomberg all before I turned 24.
My love of storytelling came from my work in coffeeshops, where I’ve worked since I was 14. I loved making coffee, and I took those jobs because I needed the money, but I especially loved the lives converging at my coffee counter. Baristas naturally assume the role of community therapist, and there I learned stories were all around me -- I just had to reach out and tell them.
In college, I wrote for my school newspaper, started our podcast section, and made documentaries. The documentary I was most proud of was about my brother, a Division One football player who struggled with concussions. The doc won a student a film festival, and was sent around by family and friends, landing me an internship with CNN.
During the pandemic, I offered my storytelling services to a local soup kitchen to inform our community of the increased level of need. Ultimately, I became a floor manager of that soup kitchen.
At a local branch of NPR in Connecticut, I wrote stories about Bridgeport’s Muslim community fighting for recognition in their schools. I also broadcasted on Hartford’s long history of school segregation. It was there I learned how storytelling could truly create change. I worked in Hartford through the end of college, and then moved to Brooklyn after an offer to work out of 30 Rockefeller Center for MSNBC — a dream come true.
After 7 months of waking up at 2AM to work on Morning Joe, I realized I wanted to be a reporter more than I wanted to be a producer. I took an opportunity with Bloomberg News. I knew nothing about finance, but I knew I wanted to write my own stories again. I could only rely on my journalistic instincts to get me through. The two pillars I relied on were: ask questions without fear of asking a ‘dumb question’ and understand that people are at the root of all stories, even in finance.
Two months in, I wrote Bloomberg’s first story on the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Soon I found myself at the center of Bloomberg’s reporting on the largest financial crisis since 2008, writing four front-page features. The experience taught me I could write national news stories, and add to the world’s collective understanding on complicated subjects.
Now? I’m writing about the world of technology for Gizmodo. I believe these are some of the most important stories of our time, touching on my love for politics, finance, innovation and culture, all wrapped into one sector. Five years from now, I hope to be leading a newsroom’s reporting on technology.