My name is Anna McDonald and I graduated from Missouri State University in 1996. I’m reaching out to you because lately I’ve been thinking about how thankful I am for the classes I took in Political Science as an undergraduate. My last two years at school I enrolled in just a few classes from the Political Science department because I was interested in them and curious. I was majoring in Child Development and really had no idea what I wanted to do. At the time, I had no idea I’d eventually, many, many years later, end up in the journalism field. I thought maybe I would see if law school was of interest. I had no idea where I was going or what field I wanted to end up in, but now, I can honestly say the skills and information I learned in those undergraduate political science classes I use every day.
Alice Bartee was the one who taught me to have some confidence. I remember sitting in class with a group of students who were set on going to law school — and beyond — and I thought, what am I doing here? She encouraged me and knew how to develop skills I never knew I had. She had an amazing way of championing success for her students. I’m sure you’ve heard all this before, but whenever I interview someone I remember her lectures about attitudes and beliefs and how they can influence facts. It’s helped me ensure I fact-check my reporting from several angles. Publications that value journalism would never be satisfied with inaccurate or incomplete reporting (and in today’s day and age many places don’t even know how to recognize incomplete reporting, they just want it fast and before anyone else). I wouldn’t be able to write for ESPN had I not learned the importance of looking at things from many different positions.
My work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, FOX Sports, and I currently (for the past six years) write for ESPN dot com. I didn’t major in journalism, or even take a journalism class, but everything I’ve been able to accomplish has been due to a combination of hard work, treating others the best I can and using the skills I learned in some of the law classes I took at Missouri State University. It’s not an easy thing for a sports reporter in today’s day and age to find content that the best of the best news organizations will want to publish on a national level, and on top of that, have the material actually do well once it’s published.
I just thought I’d drop you a note to encourage you in the fact that students will become many things after they graduate, some will go down the exact path they planned and others, like myself, will years later find their niche. You never know when the least likely student will take something a professor has taught them in class and turn it into something completely fantastic and unexpected. I hope your department is still doing well and a huge thanks to your department for everything you taught me.
You can follow Anna on Twitter @Anna_McDonald
For more information about Anna, you can watch this story from KSDK –Mother of Three