Neumann University welcomed a special guest to campus on Thursday, October 12. The visitor was Carly Sitrin, a professional journalist who is currently the Philadelphia bureau chief at Chalkbeat, which reports on education across the country.
At Chalkbeat Sitrin writes about education issues, school funding, teachers unions, school integration, and other local news. She previously worked at POLITICO where she was a beat writer covering education policy in New Jersey, and prior to that, she worked for NJ Spotlight News where she covered education, social policy, and even cannabis legislation.
She spoke to students studying journalism in the class Media Workshop: NeuPress, but instead of giving them a lecture, the students interviewed her, allowing the meeting to follow their interests.
Students asked Sitrin for tips on how to interview.
“I do a combination of recording and note taking,” said Sitrin as she showed the device she uses to record. “Ask for a moment in someone’s life to get more colorful responses. Bring out someone’s passion through your question.”
She also gave students advice about getting past writer’s block.
“Just write through it, even if it’s terrible, until you can write yourself into something you do like,” she said. “Try to find the most interesting thing about a story that you don’t care about. Try to get through it quick, try to think of the person that does care about the story, and what they want to hear.”
Read her stories at Chalkbeat.
