The other day at work I got into a motor boat with a couple of scientists to take algae levels on a small pond on Cape Cod.  The scientists were researching a natural parasitic predator of the algae that causes Red Tide.   

Fumbling around with my microphone and recording kit, I tried to piece together a logical string of interview questions.  My goal: get the scientists to explain what they were doing in a way that myself, or any other normal human being, could actually understand.  And it occurred to me: How did I get here?  Would I ever have thought that I would be doing something like this when I “grew up”?  

I’m a producer and reporter for Living on Earth on Public Radio International (www.loe.org).  We’re a weekly show that covers environmental, health, and emerging science stories.   

Before coming back to Boston to join Living on Earth, I interned for the summer at NPR in DC.  And that summer I was a sponge.  All I did was ask questions, follow people around, and learn.  The media world is a small one, and the radio world verges on incestuous.  But this is a good thing because once you’ve done an internship or two, you’ll probably have met someone who knows of a job or a contact somewhere that might actually be able to give you a paycheck.   

But I came pretty close to being turned away from journalism at the door.  Professor Feinman almost didn’t let me into her Journalism 101 class during the fall of my sophomore year.  I had no experience whatsoever in journalism, but I knew that if I didn’t do something fast, my comparative literature major was gonna get me stuck in the ivory tower indefinitely.  

I’m too young to have any magical tidbits of advice on how to get a paying job in media fresh out of college.  I think we’re all supposed to flop around a bit.  But my best advice: ask for help when you need it, and then say thank you and, more importantly, report the stories that interest you personally.  

Wonder is contagious.