The following essay was written by Rose Merjos '23 as an assignment for the Spring 2021 semester course Topics in Journalism: The Art and Craft of Journalistic Nonfiction.  It’s a Friday night in February 2019. People are rushing down the outdoor stairwell into the lower level of a dorm. The heavy bass drum and colorful strobe lights pulse through the windows of the basement into the courtyard of West College. More than a hundred people are piled into the WestCo Cafe, barely able to move. The crowd in front of the stage lurches across the room like a wave. The…

The following essay was written by Kiran Kling '24 (pictured above far left) as an assignment for the Spring 2021 semester course Topics in Journalism: The Art and Craft of Journalistic Nonfiction.   The Zoom was exactly on schedule. The gallery view was full, five minutes early. Coach Reilly ran a tight ship, and all 15 Wesleyan University basketball players, together but apart on this Wednesday night, knew the rules. “Good to see you all tonight,” Reilly begins. “Everybody give updates, freshman first this time.”  Every Wednesday at 7 p.m., the nine players who chose to come to campus for the…

The following essay was written by Rory Curtin '23 as an assignment for the Spring 2021 semester course Topics in Journalism: The Art and Craft of Journalistic Nonfiction. Pulling off a winding highway into a run-down gas station, Anabel DiMartino ['23] checked her phone. An unexpected text flashed across her screen: “hey this is crazy but me and lila are looking a third roommate for an apartment in western mass this semester.” After a long, hot morning of driving with her mom, the text was the last thing she expected. The pair were en route to New York City to…

The following essay was written by Sophie Talcove-Berko '21 as an assignment for the Spring 2021 semester course Topics in Journalism: The Art and Craft of Journalistic Nonfiction.  Speeding down the slopes at 20 miles per hour, Tammy Shine stopped to catch her breath and a glimpse of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. For a college senior at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, this was a drastically different start to the school morning from semesters past, frantically making coffee and rushing to class. As COVID-19 surged this winter, college seniors from across the country faced an important decision: how to…

The following essay was written by Chapin Montague '21 as an assignment for the Spring 2021 semester course Topics in Journalism: The Art and Craft of Journalistic Nonfiction.  When Michayla Robertson-Pine ’22 returned to her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts in March after receiving Wesleyan University’s “Do Not Return” email, a message all too familiar to college students across the country, she knew she couldn’t sit around and do nothing. So she teamed up with her friend Tessa Levenstein, an Amherst College student, to create an after-school Harry Potter book club for children of Amherst professors. After a few Zoom sessions,…

The following essay was written by Shakka Chaiban '22 as an assignment for the Spring 2021 semester course Topics in Journalism: The Art and Craft of Journalistic Nonfiction.  Perched on the side of highway 191 in a cramped sedan, overlooking the neverending brown, barren desert of Uintah County, Utah on a late October night where only the stars illuminated the darkness, Norm Cotteleer ['22], 21, lightly hit his forehead on the dashboard in a state of perplexity. A little over four and a half hours away from his temporary home in Sandy, Utah, Norm and his two roommates had been…