This content copyright © Indiana University School of Journalism 2014
Photo by Anthony Fargo
Matt Callahan, BAJ’13, talked to Madison Borgmann at Red Mesa Cantina in St. Pete during a dinner at which the current EPS students met with alumni working in the area.
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ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — As the sun set over St. Petersburg, Fla., Thursday night, three IU School of Journalism alumni met with sophomore Ernie Pyle Scholars in the low lights of Red Mesa Cantina, the same restaurant the alumni visited when they went on their sophomore scholar trips.
Caitlin Johnston, BAJ’11, Matt Callahan, BAJ’13, and Claire Wiseman, BAJ’13, sat along two tables while they shared a meal and exchanged stories with the 19 undergraduates.
Since their recent graduation, the alumni have been all over the U.S., interning in Dallas, New York, Virginia and Massachusetts.
Wiseman, who currently works the 6 a.m. breaking news shift at the Tampa Bay Times, said since graduating, she has already learned valuable lessons in being a journalist.
“While I was in Dallas, I was sent with another intern to cover the Moore, Okla., tornado,” Wiseman said. “I’ve never done any disaster coverage before that. I had never seen people experience that level of grief. It was really difficult, but it made me a better reporting, and it’s what I do a lot of at the Tampa Bay Times.”
Students at her table asked about how she spent her time in college and how she got her current job. She answered questions and inquired about the scholars’ current projects for the Indiana Daily Student, where she spent much of her time in college.
At the other table, Caitlin Johnston and Matt Callahan conversed with students about their daily lives working for the Tampa Bay Times. For Johnston, who works at the Hillsborough bureau, her time with journalism professors helped her to make the decision to attend graduate school at the University of Maryland after her undergraduate studies, and also to pursue her current job, she said.
She noted in particular her time spent with Kelley Benham French, who is joining IU faculty next year. A former reporter at the Tampa Bay Times, French spent time with Johnston and helped demystify some aspects of the job.
“I still hate knocking on people’s doors when they don’t expect me,” Johnston said. “It helps knowing that Kelley still does laps around the block when she has to do the same thing. It doesn’t matter how successful a journalist is, they always have somebody they fan-girl over or they look up to, and that’s just good to know as a young journalist.”
As a designer, Callahan’s work is different for the Times. One of his main assignments is to design the sports front page every other day. Students laughed with him as they had recognized his work in the previous edition of the paper — no byline necessary. The day before, the scholars passed around the sports page of the Tampa Bay Times recognizing the font, layout and style of the three bold cut-out figures against plenty of white space, a design Callahan coined during his time working for the IDS.
Since graduation, Callahan has worked for The New York Times, The Virginia Pilot and now the Tampa Bay Times. He has freelanced for a nonprofit and a fitness magazine’s online edition.
“I really like it here,” Callahan said of St. Petersburg. “I love moving around a lot and being in new places. I remember being here on this same trip a couple years ago and thinking this was a place I could actually see myself after graduation. It just made sense to me. It’s funny to now see it all come full circle.”