Before coming to Rutgers, Samantha Marshak JMS’23 intended to choose a pre-law academic track, hoping to eventually go to law school. Once she arrived on campus, she decided to double-major in Cognitive Science and Journalism and Media Studies and minor in Philosophy. These were subjects she said she was passionate about and made sense for an aspiring attorney.

After the pandemic, Marshak said she began to feel more drawn to a career in journalism instead of law. “I really wanted to see how far I could get [working as a journalist] because I've always been so passionate about writing and using my voice to help people,” Marshak said.

A career in journalism, she felt, would enable her to help people more quickly by getting their stories out faster, versus a career in law, because she noted she had begun to think of the justice system as a “convoluted process.”

“I just chose to follow my dreams more. I think so far, I've been really happy with how things are turning out,” she said.

Today, Marshak, who was the undergraduate speaker at SC&I’s commencement in June, 2023, is attending the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in pursuit of an M.A. in business/economics reporting and data journalism. She formerly worked as a data analytics editor at ASI, a B2B publication, before she began graduate school.

In our Q&A with Marshak, she discusses the process she went through to narrow down the path she ultimately chose to pursue after graduation. 

SC&I: How did you discover your interest in investigative journalism?
SM: I took an investigative reporting class (with Professor Juan Gonzalez), and that really opened my eyes to the investigative reporting field. Once I graduated, I had an internship with News12 right in the fall [after graduation] and I worked with the Kane in Your Corner investigative team. One investigation I worked on was finding out how many unreported police-involved shootings there were in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Police Use of Force database. About one-third of police shootings in New Jersey go unreported, and no justice is provided for the victims’ families because they do not receive enough media attention.

[News 12] was doing other investigative [work] such as a year long rape kit investigation, which just came out on their channel a few months ago, and it led to laws being changed because of the investigation. Seeing how much impact they were having as a two-person team was very inspiring.

SC&I: Did all this experience make you want to go to graduate school?
SM: After the internship, I got a full-time job working at a B2B publication as their data editor, and I loved the job so much. I realized that I wanted to solidify my skill set by becoming more advanced in data analysis, coding, and investigative work. Receiving a full-tuition scholarship and summer internship from Reuters also helped me make the decision to go, allowing me to truly focus on getting the most out of my classes and school experience.

SC&I: In the future, what would you like to do in journalism? Where do you see yourself in five years? 
SM: I want to do investigative data reporting. I have an internship with Reuters this summer, and I'm really excited about it. In five years, I want to work for a national publication in NYC with a robust business section, like Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Financial Times.

SC&I: What advice would you give to a senior who may be a little confused about what they want to do? 
SM: For a senior who's confused, I totally get it! I remember feeling similarly. I found that if you keep working at something and putting one foot in front of the other every day, you will get through the confusion, and land on the other side you don't need to figure out everything all at once. It might feel especially hard at times, when you have to make decisions with no “right” answer. There might not be others who’ve chosen the same path as you, so once you make a decision, stick by it and make the best of any situation. Don’t get discouraged and know good things are coming!

Learn more about the Journalism and Media Studies major at the School of Communication and Information on the website.

Photo: Courtesy of Samantha Marshak