Kristen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist based out of Philadelphia, PA. Covering the city’s education and school district news, Kristen one the Pulitzer for her coverage of the safety in Philadelphia’s schools. The piece led the city to crack down on school violence, giving Kristen the ultimate gratification for her work: the highest award in print media and knowing she made a real difference in the city.
Transcript
>> My name is Christine Graham. I am a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer where I cover the Philadelphia School District. I worked at the Inquirer for 13 years since my time at Temple University. So I am a part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2012. We did a series called Assault on Learning about violence in the Philadelphia public schools. There were actually 3 Temple alums on my team. My colleague, Dillon Percell [phonetic], and my college, Sharon Chakoski Kimmel [phonetic]. And we basically spent a year and a half exploring violence in city public schools. Found a lot of eye opening and frightening things and essentially affected some real change in city schools. And were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for that. So no 2 days are the same as a reporter. I could think that I'm doing one thing and you know, sit down at my desk to write a long term story. And then I got a phone call. Something's breaking. I've got to run and cover a press conference at the school district or a source wants to meet me but I do work on mostly daily stories. So quick turnaround. I also write things for the Sunday paper. Features that take a lot of time as well. I'm doing kind of a combination of writing at my desk, making phone calls, out in the community, visiting schools, talking to teachers, talking to students. So it's very interesting and it's completely unpredictable. I'm a beat reporter. So for the most part, I'm directing my own coverage. You know no one knows the school district as well as me because they -- that's what they pay me to do. And you know so I'll sit down with my editor at the beginning of the week and say these are the stories that I think are going to, you know, happen this week. Of course anything could break but generally the deadlines are the same every day. For the early editions we have to have stories in by say 5:30. If it's a later breaking story, has to be in 9 but for the most part, I'm directing my own coverage. Occasionally you'll have an editor say you know I want you to work on such and such a story but that's pretty rare. [ Silence ]
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