Alumni |
Ivona Lerman |
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"The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism is one of a kind, irreplaceable and the most valuable center of this kind in the country, if not the world. This program provides all the necessary tools for a young, aspiring journalist interested in this field. It is absolutely essential in the world in which environmental issues are becoming more and more important." |
After graduating from MSU with a master's degree in journalism, I moved to Florida and started working as an environment writer at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, a 115,000 circulation, family-owned daily newspaper. Since I also have an undergraduate degree in marine biology from Eckerd College in Florida, I specialized in covering marine science: mainly sea turtle and manatee issues. During my work there, I traveled throughout the state — my favorite was following scientists in the field. Highlights include riding a blimp with researchers looking for right whales, flying in a small plane counting manatees and riding boats in search of dolphins. I also wrote about bats, sea horses and many other cool Florida critters. In the summer of 2003, together with my colleague at the paper, I won a third-place explanatory journalism award from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors for a piece on the Indian River Lagoon. In the late summer of 2003, I moved to Zagreb, Croatia, (my hometown) where I got a job as an associate editor for the Croatian edition of National Geographic magazine. In the summer of 2005, I was further promoted to deputy editor in chief of the magazine. Along with my editing and managing duties, I also write occasional feature stories for the magazine. This summer, for example, I toured Croatian national parks and wrote a large feature on the state of national parks in Croatia. Working for National Geographic is my dream job, and I feel extremely lucky and proud to be part of its international family. —Ivona Lerman |
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