Elizabeth Zwerling A passion for real-life drama and a desire to teach and learn are what drove Elizabeth Zwerling, associate professor of journalism, to pursue a life in journalism. For many years, the native New Yorker thought she would pursue a career in theater. She wrote, directed and acted in plays through high school and college, majoring in dramatic literature at Oberlin College. She also wrote some theater reviews for her college paper. “I loved theater from when I was very young,” she said adding that in “her day” tickets to Broadway plays were about $10 or $15, so she saw many.  After graduating from college, she moved to San Francisco and took a job teaching theater and art in an elementary school, while she performed with an improv theater group. She also did some freelance journalism, which she found to be the most rewarding of her early “career projects.” “It was something I could see myself doing fulltime.” It had all the drama of theater, she said, “and a little less of the uncertainty as a career choice.” She enrolled at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, earning an M.S. in journalism in 1994, then spent most of the next decade working for daily newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Based on this experience, she frequently regales her students with stories about police chases and shootouts, hanging out with prostitutes and strippers, and wrecking her car covering various natural disasters. “Being there, in these gritty, real, dangerous situations was an adrenaline rush,” she said. She described one time when a ride-along with the local sheriff turned into a “potential shootout, where I had to choose between ducking to protect myself from expected bullets or grabbing my reporter’s notebook and taking notes.” Though she admits that after nearly eight years of such workplace drama, she is thrilled to be teaching college and pursuing more thoughtful in-depth magazine-style journalism as a freelancer. It’s intense and satisfying in a different way, she said. Aside from her professional interests, she has always been something of an athlete. She was a competitive gymnast as a child and teenager. She swam, played ultimate Frisbee, and skied competitively. She is also a yoga-holic. Though these days, there’s little time for hobbies. On June 29, 2005, Elizabeth and her husband, writer and educator Tom Sinsky, welcomed their daughter Audrey. “Teaching Audrey, playing with her and seeing her develop new skills daily – I had no idea how much fun it would be!” she said. “Being a mom has made me better at everything a do. It’s made me a better person.” THE PROFESSOR As a teacher, she finds that students “who are interested in learning and working hard” do well with her. When asked what her students think of her, she said they appreciate her accessibility, her passion for her work and knowledge about the newspaper industry. “They also appreciate my knack for giving supportive feedback, constructive criticism.” And, she added, those who do well “benefit from my many connections in the newspaper business. “The most rewarding part of my job is when I help a student improve as a writer, then see him or her succeed in a journalism job after graduation,” she said. “I hold my Campus Times staffers to professional standards. Sometimes they think I’m being too hard on them, but often when they get into professional positions they come back and thank me for preparing them so well. It’s a tough business.” RETURN TO FACULTY LISTmailto:ZWERLING@ulv.edu?subject=HELLOHome.htmlshapeimage_1_link_1
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