About

When I stepped out of the Range Rover in the West African village, I expected to mingle with villagers and blend in as I asked questions about their crops and the NGO-funded dam.

Instead, I was the instant center of attention in the village meeting hall, where more than 100 adults in brightly colored scarves had gathered to meet me, tell their stories and answer questions.

Learning to report in another language while the center of attention is one skill I honed in Niger, West Africa on a 12-day reporting trip with a fellowship from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. I also juggled a camera, voice recorder and video camera as I recorded multimedia and wrote blog posts for the Pulitzer Center.

That was just one of my diverse reporting experiences last summer, from visiting a Trekkie in the mountains of Colorado to shooting and editing a video of horses on trail rides and scouring an arrest affidavit for details in a breaking news story about a murder trial. The Associated Press picked up many of my stories, including coverage of the Trekkie and the trial.

I have proven that I can step into a role at a moment’s notice, whether it’s landing interviews with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former Bachelorette star Trista Sutter or creating an audio slideshow for a story on Cuba. I know how to analyze and evaluate data because of my fully funded master’s degree in political science. I hope to use and improve these skills in your newsroom next.

Contact me at: Ruth.C.Moon@gmail.com