thecuriouskat

Hey David,

Two questions:

• As a fledgling journalist, I'm constantly having conversations about breaking into the field during these "changing" times — the internet makes reporting today way different from reporting decades ago. Say you graduated from college this past year and were trying to break into the journalism field. Do you think this hypothetical career trajectory would be the same as your actual one? Not exactly comparable, but I'm interested in hearing how media today could've affected or changed your development as a journalist.

• Lena Dunham's HBO show "Girls." What do you think of it? There's lots of fodder on how it's not diverse — primarily a show about a bunch of "entitled white girls." Dunham's been criticized for this, and as a result, vowed to bring diversity to her set. Cue the entrance of Donald Glover in season two. Is that tokenism? General thoughts?

Thanks!

(Edit: formatting)

Two things that I'll add: Look at local scholarships, too! And don't be afraid to include a very blunt, to-the-point statement of financial need.

-So many local banks, radio stations, professional organizations, et cetera, offer scholarships for students who grew up in the state or go to college in the state. And I feel like most of the time, nobody applies.

I won more than $60,000 in scholarships from applying to a mix of professional and local organizations in both my home state and my school's state. I studied journalism, so I went through channels such as the Society of Professional Journalists (again, chapters in both my home and school's states) and local broadcast associations helped.

-Financial statement: Even if the scholarship application didn't call for it, I'd include a little paragraph detailing my financial situation and why I thought I needed the scholarship. It basically went, "I'm paying for school myself, blah blah blah."

Thank you for this thoughtful response!