(photo: first from left)
Biography
Amanda Bensen, 27, studied literature and communications at Gordon College from 1996 to 2000 and earned a master’s degree in print journalism from Columbia University in 2005. After graduating from Columbia, Amanda joined the features staff of The Post-Star, a regional daily newspaper in northern New York (Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs). She covers an arts/life beat, writes a column and takes photos. She also reports and writes front-page enterprise stories about social, economic and environmental topics. Before graduate school, she worked in trade journalism and publishing. Amanda lived in Salzburg, Austria for three months in 2003 as an intern for the Salzburg Seminar, an independent international forum where she learned to speak a little German, facilitate cross-cultural dialogues, and tap a beer keg. She’s hoping all of those skills will come in handy during this next adventure. As a Burns fellow, Amanda plans to report a series of articles about a major semiconductor manufacturer that may soon build a facility in upstate New York, based on its existing facility in Dresden. She is looking forward to learning more about daily business journalism through her placement at Reuters.
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Final Report
From the start of my Burns fellowship, I was determined to make the most of the experience, since I’d actually quit my job to accept it. I don’t regret my choice. The time I spent in Germany, and the orientation week before that, proved to be one of the most fun and fulfilling experiences of my career so far. It was also one of the most challenging.
For a start, I did not realize when I requested my placement was that the combination of one of the cities I listed – Frankfurt – and one of the agencies I listed – Reuters – would land me in a newsroom focused exclusively on financial reporting. I had covered a variety of topics in my job as a features reporter for a small daily newspaper, but finance was a foreign language to me.
My first day in the office was encouraging – a Burns alum welcomed me, set me up with a desk and computer password, and handed me a glass of champagne (I’d had the good timing to arrive in the middle of someone’s goodbye party). I expected that within the next few days, someone might give me an assignment. But instead I spent most of the next two weeks checking my e-mail and simply trying not to get run over by reporters who were literally sprinting across the newsroom to “snap” headlines onto the wire ahead of the competition.
The biggest challenge I faced was basic communication. I realized that unlike in my home newsroom, no one was in charge of me. There were no regular “morning meetings” where I would learn what stories were scheduled for each day, and where I might fit in. There was no water cooler or lunch room where reporters might cross paths for a moment and chat. I actually considered becoming a smoker, since the smoking room seemed to be the only place I might get to speak to anyone!
Eventually, I started stalking people. Every time I saw someone get up for coffee, I went for a refill. (I think I’m still feeling the caffeine buzz.) If I asked what they were working on, they often volunteered to let me watch over their shoulder or tag along on a few assignments. As a result, I ended up learning a lot about topics I never thought I would care about – the subprime mortgage crisis, central banking policy, and soccer stocks, among other things – and contributing reporting or editing to half a dozen stories. I also wrote four stories of my own, though only two made it to print.
I learned to function on the smallest amount of information possible, since simply accepting an assignment often required investigative reporting skills. I usually knew where, what, or when, but not all three at once, and sometimes I got this information too late to get there in time. All I can say to future fellows who might find themselves in this situation is: Don’t take it personally! News agency reporters are just busy and frequently distracted.
Although German-language press conferences went largely over my head, I developed my own strategies to compensate. I waited until the end, then pulled the speakers aside for a few questions (usually vague ones, like, “So, what did you think was the most important point?”), using the excuse that I wrote for an English-language service and needed quotes in English. Then I grabbed any written materials available and ran back to the office to consult my closest ally, Leo the online dictionary (http://dict.leo.org/).
Despite any qualms I may have had about my placement, Reuters was an invaluable resource when I needed help reporting the main story I had come to Germany to pursue for my home paper (The Albany Times Union, which hired me as a freelancer after I quit the Post-Star). I wanted to learn more about AMD, a semiconductor maker based in Dresden that has promised to build its next factory in upstate New York. The Reuters technology correspondent used her contacts to set up interviews for me with government and corporate sources in Dresden, and when she discovered that the Saxony economy minister didn’t speak English, she convinced a German-speaking colleague to accompany me. I’m very grateful for that, since the result was an important business news story for the Albany paper that I couldn’t have reported without this assistance.
I do wish that I hadn’t been so shy about my language skills for most of my time there, because they definitely improved with practice. When I was forced into conducting some interviews in German, I discovered that I knew more than I thought, and no one made fun of my terrible grammar. It helped to befriend some “real” locals from outside of work, since so much of the Reuters staff only spoke German as a second language. One online resource I found useful was called “Frankfurt in Motion,” which organizes informal activities like sports events and pub crawls for expats in the city. I would encourage future fellows to check it out: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Frankfurt-n-Motion/
I was the only fellow in Frankfurt this year, and I’ll admit that I initially envied those who had placements in Berlin. But I really fell in love with Frankfurt by the end of my stay. It’s just the right size – big and diverse enough to feel like a true city, but small enough to navigate much of it by bike or foot. Some of my favorite memories include sipping beer or “apfelwein” (the local specialty) with friends on the banks of the Main river and watching the sun slide behind the skyscrapers for the night. On several summer weekends, street fairs transformed the riverbanks were transformed into a mini-Oktoberfest atmosphere. And no matter how late I stayed out, I always felt safe in my neighborhood (Nordend/Bornheim).
I made a rule for myself that I would recommend to future fellows: Say yes to all (reasonable) social invitations, whether or not you’re feeling tired, shy, etc. After all, you’re only there for two months. One invitation led to another, and by the end of my time there, I had made some good friends in the newsroom and felt much more involved. On my last day, people actually paused what they were doing long enough to wish me well and spontaneously sing a chorus of “For she’s a jolly good fellow” (get it?) on my way out.
Now I’m facing several job options, including some in the field of financial reporting, which I wouldn’t have dreamed of pursuing before the fellowship. I plan to keep practicing and studying German, and I know I’ll find a way back there someday soon.