Journalism Alumni Find Success At Regional Papers
Media and Communication alumni Jay Mullen, Caton Deuso, Austin Crosier, and Jana DeCamilla are working as reporters at newspapers near Castleton University.
Mullen and DeCamilla work at the Post Star in Glens Falls, New York. Mullen is a general reporter. He got his start in news writing through the Castleton Spartan as a sports writer and sports editor.
“Originally, my goal with doing journalism was to be a sportswriter, which obviously, I'm not doing now. I'm incredibly happy with what I'm doing, but sports was just something that I knew the most about. I figured I would be able to transition into writing or reporting on it a lot easier. I didn't even start writing regular, local news until senior year,” he said.
Mullen attributes his success in the newsroom to his classes at Castleton and the hands-on nature of being a student reporter.
“I owe everything that I'm doing right now to Dave Blow, Michael Talbot, Sam Davis-Boyd, and to the school, and to that decision I made to transfer there. It really helped me get to where I am.,” Mullen said.
DeCamilla covers Queensbury and Moreau, as well as serving as a general reporter at the Post Star
DeCamilla found her way to journalism due to a lifelong love of creative writing, but admits that it took some time for her to warm up to it.
“I was thinking, ‘I need something to do with this love of writing where I can have a job and get paid, so maybe I'll check out journalism.’ At first, I wasn't super psyched about it. However, the more I did, I realized, ‘you know what, I kind of like this.’ When I stopped doing it when I graduated, I would think ‘this would be a good story’ or I'd see a story and think ‘I wish I had gotten that,’” she said.
An obstacle that DeCamilla has been overcoming is navigating the start of her career in the newsroom in the midst of COVID-19.
“With COVID, it has been kind of weird with hours. For example, I'll work half the day in the office and then half the day at home. Some days, I'm the only one in the office, and it's definitely been a balancing act figuring out my own schedule to get my work done,” she said.
DeCamilla feels that she was more than prepared for this role because of her time at Castleton.
“I would definitely say being a part of the Spartan newspaper was irreplaceable. I wouldn't know half of what I'm doing right now if I hadn't been already getting the feel of things, knowing how it feels to have a deadline and get something in and get sources. Certain things that I learned at Castleton have definitely elevated what I could do and bring to my new job,” she said.
Similar to Mullen, Austin Crosier was led to journalism through the lens of sports reporting.
Crosier works at the Granville Sentinel as a general reporter who also covers the police beat and manages the paper’s social media.
“When I was little, I would watch SportsCenter in the morning with my brother while we waited for the school bus.. I really fell in love with one of the anchors, Stuart Scott, who ended up passing away from cancer. I just loved his positive energy and the way he was able to talk about sports in a way that made people really feel like they were there, even though they were watching from home. That really inspired me to get into storytelling. I already had a deep love for sports, so I wanted to see if there was a way I could connect sports and journalism,” he said.
Crosier also wrote for the Spartan as a sports writer before shifting into news reporting during his senior year
Now, he utilizes the skills and confidence he developed at Castleton, handling the Granville police beat, as well as designing several pages of paper.
“My classes in the communication department really shaped me for the position I'm in now with preparation, and some of the lessons that that Dave Blow taught me in his journalism classes, I still use to this day,” Crosier said. “Some of those techniques, whether it's interviewing people, the way that I write, the spacing, you name it. There's something that he taught me that you will see every single week, and I'm so grateful for that.” What keeps him motivated at work is knowing the impact his work has on the local community.
“The reason why I got into this as so I could write stories and articles that impact people and help them to understand what's going on around them, and inspire either change or action.,” he said.
Deuso works at the Whitehall Times covering the general Whitehall beat and Dresden and Hartford town board meetings. Deuso and Crosier sometimes collaborate on pieces as the Granville Sentinel and Whitehall Times are owned by the same parent company.
After transferring from CCV to Castleton, Deuso began taking courses in the media and communication department, beginning with feature writing.
“I had no prior knowledge, except for what I learned in this one high school class for journalism. So I walked in, and I had no clue what was going on, or how to do journalism at all,” Deuso said.
Media & Communication professor and Spartan advisor Dave Blow saw potential in Deuso and encouraged them to continue taking courses in the program.
“It's the thing that I've done the most when I was there, and it's the thing that I loved the most when I was there,” Deuso said.
A challenge for Deuso in their current role has been managing the unpredictable hours that come with news work.
“I've had Mondays where I've worked like a 14-hour shifts and I might have taken a break to go to the bathroom, maybe twice … Where it’s just been around the clock working, and go-go-go from the second that I wake up. Then there's some days where you wake up at 7 a.m., you do your press proof, and then maybe slip back in for another hour and a half for sleep, which is nice because if I get off a 14-hour Monday shift, I need to reserve time for the rest of the week,” they said.
Deuso reminds students to not be too hard on themselves as they grow as writers.
“All you can do is try your best. There's going to be critics. You might become your own biggest critic down the line. But don't be afraid to take the compliments when they are handed to you. And remember why you do it. If you haven't figured out why you do it yet, then that's okay. But I would recommend finding out the reason why you're driven to do it. And then once you figure that out, you're going to be set even further down the line, you're going to find your drive and go,” they said.