Resume

EXPERIENCE:

Reporter
October, 2005– 2008

Wrote and reported on a wide range of topics from local politics to crime and occasional features for print and online. Covered two cities whose combined population reached nearly 200,000. Researched and published stories focusing on how much the Supervisor of Elections Office in Broward County (the second-largest county in South Florida) had been over-billing cities. Occasional feature stories included a story about a greens keeper, who worked for an exclusive golf club in South Florida, and, who, it was later discovered, had been robbing banks in Scottsdale, Ariz. on his days off. Another story focused on a trust attorney who had secretly transferred his clients’ money into his private account and was using it to pay for his son’s college education in Australia and his daughter’s cell phone bill. He was eventually convicted and is currently serving a five-year sentence.

Freelance Journalist
Oct. 2004 – Sept. 2005

Worked with the Knight Ridder bureau chief based in Berlin on breaking news stories such as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s death to the decision by French voters to rally against the European constitution. Also translated numerous interviews with French sources.

Knight Ridder Sequential Internship

June 2001 through May 2002

Completed three newspaper internships over the course of a year. Eight trainees are selected annually for this paid program.

January – May, 2002

Covered police, general assignment and government beats for two towns and one city based at the Star-Telegram’s Northeast bureau, which has seven editors and 30 reporters. Among my 55 published stories, I revealed that two of the three police department officials, including the chief of a small town (Marshall Creek) had been working with expired peace officer licenses. After the publication of that story, thousands of dollars were refunded to dozens of motorists and their arrests were invalidated. I also discovered and wrote that the same police department had been writing tickets, and creating revenue for the town by ticketing drivers on a stretch of road outside the town limits. The police chief has since resigned.

October, 2001 – January, 2002

Reported 60 stories, some of national interest, including Kmart’s bankruptcy and an estranged wife’s fight for her legal rights over her husband’s lottery winnings. Interviewed the fiancée of a man who was mistakenly shot and killed by police.

June – October, 2001

Began as a general assignment reporter for the city desk and ended my internship on the crime beat. Features included a story about a Catholic church official who decided to end the weekly Bingo games to the chagrin of many churchgoers. One elderly woman who had been a loyal Bingo player for more than 10 years angrily asked, “Why not get rid of the Catholic church?” In another story, I wrote about a man’s ill-fated drive along San Francisco’s Bay Bridge in which a construction beam fell on top of his pickup truck, killing him instantly. Family members expressed their grief to me asking questions without answers: “Why him?”

HONORS:

• Part of the Miami Herald’s Pulitzer Prize-winning team on its breaking news coverage of Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez who was seized by federal agents and returned to his father in April, 1999.

• Florida International University’s Outstanding Print Journalism Student for 2001

• Freedom Forum’s Chips Quinn Scholar, Summer, 1999

• Awarded The Miami Herald’s Janet Chusmir Scholarship, Fall, 1999

EDUCATION:

Florida International University, North Miami, Fl.
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism on May 2001.

Sorbonne, Paris, France
French civilization and language courses
October 2004 through May 2005

LANGUAGES:

Fluent English, Spanish and French