Annie Jia is a M.S. student concentrating in newspapers. Born in Beijing, China, Jia moved with her parents to Massachusetts when she was almost 3 years old. An only child, Jia grew up in Sharon, Mass., but ventured across the country for college to attend Stanford University in California. At Stanford, Jia majored in environmental studies, focus on energy studies. A couple of months after graduating in 2006, she was sifting through job listings when she discovered the field that she would go into,: science and environmental journalism.
Jia quickly pursued her new interest by freelancing, and then interning, for The Stanford News Service, where she wrote for The Stanford Report, the university’s weekly faculty and staff newspaper. That experience led to a science writing internship at The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University, a physics lab that focuses on “rare isotope research and nuclear science education.”
Jia also interned with Psychology Today and Living on Earth, a public radio program about the environment. Now, she is hoping to strengthen her reporting skills through her neighborhood beat at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Jia’s ideal job is to cover science and the environment for a major newspaper, though she is open to writing and science and environment anywhere that she can have an impact. Jia is also interested in covering stories related to China, which meshes well with her assigned beat this fall, Flushing, Queens.
When Jia isn’t covering local news in Flushing she loves to be out biking, backpacking, sightseeing, traveling, and having interesting conversations with her fellow colleagues and friends.
