Tiffany
Columbia College Senior and Chronicle Editor Tiffany Breyne gets weekly column in Sun-Times!
Read the first column
If anyone had asked me six months ago what I was doing after graduation, I would depressingly tell them I had no idea, just like so many of my peers. But through a stroke of good luck and perseverance, I can now say that I’m going to have a weekly column at the Chicago Sun-Times, and couldn’t be happier about it.
The opportunity started back in October, right before Halloween. I was carving pumpkins and watching scary movies at a friend’s apartment when I randomly decided to check my e-mail. After I scanned through some spam and press releases, I came across one that definitely caught my attention: it was from Neil Steinberg, a Sun-Times columnist.
Steinberg wrote that a week earlier, he had been a guest speaker in a Media Ethics and Law class at Columbia and picked up a copy of The Chronicle on his way out afterwards. He read my ‘Read My Lips’ column and said he liked my work, so he showed it to the Editor-in-Chief, Michael Cooke, and they both agreed that they wanted to see some of my clips.
At first I thought it was a joke but realized that his e-mail address was legit and proceeded to freak out about this unexpected and surreal letter. The next day I gathered up some clips and emailed them, thanking him for an opportunity and saying I hoped to hear from him soon; I figured that would be the end of it.
Instead, they wanted me to write some more stuff for them. The Sun-Times had been looking for a way to get a youthful perspective into the paper, and they thought that maybe I could be the voice behind it. So over the course of a few months, we sent e-mails back and forth as I wrote sample columns and he offered me feedback. As I sent more columns, Steinberg kept telling me he was in talks with Cooke about getting me an actual running column in the paper.
Eventually, after months of writing and waiting to see if anything would ever come of this, I got the e-mail I’d been waiting for:
“Congratulations. You’re hired. We want you to write a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times.”
I was sitting in The Chronicle office when I got the e-mail and was surrounded by a sea of handshakes and congratulations from my co-workers as I managed to eek out the news. Even though I’d been working on the sample columns and hoping to get a job for awhile, I never thought I’d actually get a regularly published column. It’s not like this kind of opportunity happens everyday.
I got that e-mail at the end of January, and my columns start running once a week in April. I still can’t believe the fact that I get to do something I love for a respected paper straight out of college. I’m thankful for the opportunity and know it wouldn’t have been possible had I not gone to Columbia or worked at The Chronicle. So cheers to all the people at the college and to my great co-workers and supervisors at the newspaper; hope I make you guys proud!
Read the first column
If anyone had asked me six months ago what I was doing after graduation, I would depressingly tell them I had no idea, just like so many of my peers. But through a stroke of good luck and perseverance, I can now say that I’m going to have a weekly column at the Chicago Sun-Times, and couldn’t be happier about it.
The opportunity started back in October, right before Halloween. I was carving pumpkins and watching scary movies at a friend’s apartment when I randomly decided to check my e-mail. After I scanned through some spam and press releases, I came across one that definitely caught my attention: it was from Neil Steinberg, a Sun-Times columnist.
Steinberg wrote that a week earlier, he had been a guest speaker in a Media Ethics and Law class at Columbia and picked up a copy of The Chronicle on his way out afterwards. He read my ‘Read My Lips’ column and said he liked my work, so he showed it to the Editor-in-Chief, Michael Cooke, and they both agreed that they wanted to see some of my clips.
At first I thought it was a joke but realized that his e-mail address was legit and proceeded to freak out about this unexpected and surreal letter. The next day I gathered up some clips and emailed them, thanking him for an opportunity and saying I hoped to hear from him soon; I figured that would be the end of it.
Instead, they wanted me to write some more stuff for them. The Sun-Times had been looking for a way to get a youthful perspective into the paper, and they thought that maybe I could be the voice behind it. So over the course of a few months, we sent e-mails back and forth as I wrote sample columns and he offered me feedback. As I sent more columns, Steinberg kept telling me he was in talks with Cooke about getting me an actual running column in the paper.
Eventually, after months of writing and waiting to see if anything would ever come of this, I got the e-mail I’d been waiting for:
“Congratulations. You’re hired. We want you to write a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times.”
I was sitting in The Chronicle office when I got the e-mail and was surrounded by a sea of handshakes and congratulations from my co-workers as I managed to eek out the news. Even though I’d been working on the sample columns and hoping to get a job for awhile, I never thought I’d actually get a regularly published column. It’s not like this kind of opportunity happens everyday.
I got that e-mail at the end of January, and my columns start running once a week in April. I still can’t believe the fact that I get to do something I love for a respected paper straight out of college. I’m thankful for the opportunity and know it wouldn’t have been possible had I not gone to Columbia or worked at The Chronicle. So cheers to all the people at the college and to my great co-workers and supervisors at the newspaper; hope I make you guys proud!