Work Experience
NOTUS & Allbritton Journalism Institute
Reporter | September 2024-present
- Selected as part of a 10-person fellowship class for early-career political reporters
- Cover New Jersey politics, Congress, cabinet nominees, Trump administration transition news and more
- Contribute to NOTUS' daily and breaking coverage
Connecticut Mirror
Data Intern | June 2024-August 2024
- Selected for Dow Jones News Fund data residency
- Analyzed data on transportation, mental health, poverty and more to write numbers-driven stories for a Connecticut audience
- Worked with other reporters to create graphics to supplement their writing
The Diamondback
News Editor | April 2022-May 2024
- Managed a desk of about 15 staff writers at the independent, student-run paper at UMD along with a team of three assistant news editors
- Edited writers' articles for newsworthiness, structure, style and sourcing
- Spearheaded coverage on student protests for Palestine, College Park ex-mayor's arrest, falsified information in student government elections and more
Staff Writer | February 2021-April 2022
- Wrote two stories per week on College Park City Council, university employees and university administration beats
- Contributed to enterprise coverage, including a longform project on disabilities featured in a Washington Post column
Howard Center for Investigative Reporting
Reporter | January 2024-May 2024
- Contributed to a semester-long project examining impacts of gifted Congressional travel on lawmakers' policy positions
- Interviewed public officials and experts and analyzed data to investigate trips sponsored by the American sugar-growing industry
Capital News Service
Washington, D.C. Bureau Reporter | August 2023-December 2023
- Covered political news from the nation's capital, with a focus on localizing federal legislation to Maryland topics like the Chesapeake Bay
- Gathered and analyzed data to write numbers-driven stories on campaign finance and COVID-19
The Frederick News-Post
Reporting Intern | June 2023-August 2023
- Bylined more than 35 stories on daily news in Frederick County
- Authored articles on national trends like pickleball and climate-adaptive agriculture for a local Frederick audience
- Spearheaded reporting on a series of investigative stories on a public records court case related to data center development in Frederick County
Stars and Stripes
Editing Intern | June 2022-August 2022
- Selected for Dow Jones News Fund copy editing residency
- Curated, edited and analyzed performance of military news content from wire services for stripes.com, Twitter and Facebook
- Reported multimedia stories on military and veteran events in the D.C. area
Education
University of Maryland | August 2020-May 2024
B.A. in Journalism and B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy
- Recipient of Honors Humanities program citation from Honors College
- News Editor at The Diamondback (formerly Assistant News Editor and Staff Writer)
- Co-President of South Asian Student Association (formerly Executive Vice President and Vice President of Marketing)
- Member of Delta Kappa Delta Sorority Inc.
- Spring 2022 undergraduate teaching assistant for SOCY100
Skills
- Coding and data analysis: HTML/CSS, R, Python (Selenium/Beautiful Soup/pandas), Tabula, OpenRefine, Github pages
- Data visualization and digital: Datawrapper, Flourish, Adobe Illustrator
- AP Style
- Video: videography with iPhone and DSLRs, editing on Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro
- Content management systems: Blox Digital, Wordpress, Cue
- Languages: fluent in English and Telugu, conversational French
Awards and Memberships
- Investigative Reporters and Editors member
- South Asian Journalists Association member
- 2024 Kappa Tau Alpha awardee and member
- 2023 Society of Professional Journalists Region 2 Mark of Excellence award finalist
- University of Maryland Dean's List — all eight semesters