Work Experience
NOTUS & Allbritton Journalism Institute
Reporter | September 2024-present
- Cover New York and New Jersey Congressional delegations, reporting on a mix of daily news from Capitol Hill and linking national and regional issues for unique angles
- Report on budget reconciliation process, tax policy, energy news developments and other complex policy areas
- Selected as part of a 10-person fellowship class for early-career political reporters
Connecticut Mirror
Data Intern | June 2024-August 2024
- Analyzed data on transportation, mental health, poverty and more to write numbers-driven stories for a Connecticut audience
- Cleaned data and produced graphics weekly using RStudio, Python, Datawrapper and Flourish
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
- Planned and edited 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 by synthesizing documents and data and interviewing public officials and experts
The Frederick News-Post
Reporting Intern | June 2023-August 2023
- Spearheaded reporting on investigative stories on data center development in Frederick County
- Bylined more than 35 stories on daily news in Frederick County, adapting national trends like climate-adaptive agriculture and accessibility for a local audience
Stars and Stripes
Editing Intern | June 2022-August 2022
- Curated, edited and analyzed performance of military news content from wire services for stripes.com, Twitter and Facebook
- Covered 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
- Completed environmental science and policy capstone (worked with U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to create science communication materials)
- Extracurriculars: The Diamondback, South Asian Student Association, Delta Kappa Delta sorority
- 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
- 2024 Kappa Tau Alpha awardee and member
- 2023 Society of Professional Journalists Region 2 Mark of Excellence award finalist
- South Asian Journalists Association member