Samantha Sais

Since the Institute a lot has happened– I know I didn't do an update last year around so I'll jump to 2011.

Starting with Gabby Giffords shooting on Jan. 8, 2011, my year got a running start freelancing that story and being first on scene for the NYTimes. During the same event I was offered a stringer contract for Reuters and started enterprising photo stories for them.

I graduated from the University of Arizona in May, 2011. The Monday post graduation I was in Nashville at the Chips Quinn training program.

I was offered a photography position at The Arizona Republic under the Pulliam Fellowship and the Chips Quinn Scholarship program.

After my fellowship ended, I continued to work in the realm of freelance photography while planning my next adventure– hopping on the 2012 campaign trail in December, starting in Iowa. I covered the Iowa Caucus shooting for Reuters which ended yesterday. As the campaign trail travels onward I will separate from it in Feb. to travel to Nairobi, Kenya.

While visiting the continent, I plan to travel to Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Egypt, Somalia, Nigeria and wherever the news takes me. I plan to go on a photography freelance basis working for photo related agencies. I return to the U.S. in May and after that who knows what the future holds for me...

Cindy Von Quednow

Hello all my NYTSJI peeps!
Since we last corresponded, I have was hired full time as a breaking news and cops reporter at the Ventura County Star, where I was doing a fellowship last year.
Around the same time I got hired, my car got totaled on the highway and I moved into my own place in the largest city in our coverage area... which isn't such a big deal because it is boring. So I still go home to Los Angeles a lot and hang out there.
While my hours are kind of lame (I work early morning W-F and nights on the weekend) I have had a chance to cover some pretty interesting things, mostly about crime and gnarly traffic collisions.
Here are some notable ones:http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/dec/03/oxnard-firefighters-knock-down-blaze-at/
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/dec/13/undocumented-immigrants-try-to-escape-domestic/
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/oct/16/ventura-police-officer-appears-to-have-committed/
Through work, I visited a state prison and wrote a neat story on a local organization that hires inmates to transcribe Braille for blind students across the country. It was by far one of my favorite reporting experiences of my career:
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/dec/21/prison-inmates-create-braille-materials-for/
Also I was recently selected to participate in a digital storytelling workshop at UC Berkeley where my fellow fellows and I learned how about the latest storytelling techniques. That was so much fun! As Mando put it, it was like the institute but in California!
Since more peeps are now on my side of the country, I've had a chance to hang out with Lauri, Stephen and Dali, always a blast!
Overall, it's been an eventful year!

Don Hecker

I’m getting ready for Tucson 2012, which is how I know it was two years ago that we were all together there. So that tells you I am still running the Institute. Doing the same things at The Times. Gee, I just realized I have a really boring life. Except at the Institute.

Sara Martinez

Master of employment!

I can't believe it has been two years since we all met. I still think of you all daily and am thrilled every time I see another one of you kicking ass in our field! This past year was devoted to continuing my education and finishing my master's degree from Northwestern University.

Over the summer, I participated in the school's News21 project focusing on education, then in my last quarter of grad school in the fall I worked for my college's news service as a reporter on Capitol Hill. I got to write some amazing stories and had some wonderful experiences.

And today, exactly four weeks after my last day of graduate school (and less than a week after my degree became official on my transcript), I got a job!! I'll be starting early next month at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where I'll be the first hybrid designer/copy editor/producer, helping to bring the paper into the digital age with its soon-to-be-released iPad app.

In other good news this year, my brother got married in August and I ended up being the maid of honor at the wedding. It was so much fun!! Then my cousin was married in Florida a month later, where we had another grand party. My cousin's twin is expecting her first baby next month, and on Christmas I found out that I will officially become an aunt this August when my brother's wife has a baby! It's an exciting time for my family. 

Elvia Malagon

Hoosier turned Floridian

This year I went from being a careless college student to a "grown-up." It's been weird. After graduating from Indiana University, I went on a trip to Eldoret, Kenya where I wrote about how HIV/AIDS has altered Kenyans lives. Then I packed up my bags and moved to a completely different part of the U.S. I've worked at the Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., since the summer. My beat is crime but I also cover some general news. Covering crime has been really interesting and challenging.Attheendoftheday,IreallylikeitandI'mlearningalot.I'vewrittenabouteverythingfromhomicidestotwo-headedsnakes.

Here is a link to all my stories for the Ledger:http://www.theledger.com/personalia/elvmal

If you all are ever in Florida, come visit me!

-Elvia

Settled and The City

Nic Barajas


The year since the institute has been a wonderful, amazing one. I took my first cross-country train trip in April, visiting some of my favorite friends and cities, including some other former Institute students — it's true what they say, we are all family.

In August, I finally became a full-time employee here at the Times, and in September moved to a great apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Several close friends have also moved to the city, which I cannot suggest highly enough. Encourage all your best friends to move to your town. (Having a town like New York helps.)

And of course, I got to greet a new group of students to the Institute family earlier this month. They're some pretty fantastic people, and I'm not just saying that because one of them might have video of me at karaoke.

Lessons in labor, loss and love

Matt Lewis


Almost a year later and what do I have to show for it? A degree in journalism, a job as an editor of a weekly community newspaper (theCoolidge Examiner), friends I will never forget and an experience that I will always cherish. I'm talking of course about the New York Times Student Journalism Institute that was held in Tucson, Ariz. from Jan. 2-12. 


I graduated from the UA with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a minor in geography. I promptly began searching for jobs in Arizona in the media industry. The offerings were few and far between, but I landed myself an interview with two companies: Wick Communications and Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. Wick is located in Southern Arizona, Sierra Vista, to be precise. They have32 newspapers and 23 specialty publications in 13 states – including Arizona, California, Oregon and Colorado. It sounded like a great place to apply. I wanted to apply for a job they had in Half Moon Bay, Calif. near San Francisco. After applying and interviewing with them, they asked for more clips. I complied and sent them some. I never heard back from them, though. I then applied at Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. for a job as an editor of a weekly community newspaper. It was mostly on a whim, because I had never envisioned myself being an editor in the past. The same day I interviewed with the company I was offered a job; but not just any job  – one with power and responsibility; one with benefits and a salary; and one with a big office.

Life was pretty good, but as always with the cyclical nature of yin and yang, my left came back down to Earthly levels when my mother passed away after a one year, ten month battle with breast cancer. It was a very sobering event after the intoxication of the spoils I had received. I began giving extra hugs and saying "I love you" more to my friends and family. You never know when someone's time will come, including our own, so I am a true believer in being as happy as we can each and every day, because it could be our last. I elected to live at home to be with my family; there is nothing in my life I value more. 


My dad has been my guardian angel, saving me from the grief disguised as mental strife. Most people want to get out of their house as soon as possible, and I suppose that's why I went down to Tucson for school instead of staying in Phoenix, but I was sure glad that my dad let me move back in after I graduated. I think we needed each other. I have a unique and special relationship with my family, because unlike Failure to Launch, my dad said I could stay as long as I like. 


I know eventually someday (maybe even soon) that it will be the right time to move out on my own, especially since I've been serious with my girlfriend Caitlin, for two years now, and we've talked about getting married after she graduates. That's another thing I've learned since the institute, is managing long-distance relationships; not just with her but with my friends from the institute, college, and people I've known in other times and capacities. I've utilized Facebook, e-mail, and other means of keeping in touch. Our lives are nothing more than the people we know, the places we go and the things we do while we're there.