Science In Action

I do a lot of work for colleges and universities, and one of my favorite things to do is talk to students—they’re almost always in the middle of projects that are clever, challenging, and inspiring. So I was excited to talk to seven students from St. Edward’s University who were doing remarkable research on everything from food-borne illnesses to nanoparticles.

The stereotype of college students tends to include a lot of drinking, partying, and sleeping through class, but over the course of my writing career, I’ve had the chance to talk to hundreds of students who are embarking on ambitious plans — and that gives me a lot of optimism about the future. The stories from this feature package are just one example of this.

Read more here.

Living Dangerously

What would it take to get you to leap out of an airplane? Run a marathon in a game preserve with lions and rhinos?  Flip off of a trapeze 30 feet in the air — without a net? For the people in this story that I did for Webster University’s alumni magazine, it’s all part of a days’s work. From movie stuntmen to student driving instructors, these men and women will remind you why your office job isn’t nearly as bad as you thought.

Read it here.

Big Ideas

Macalester College was recently named one of the ten “most intellectual” colleges, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the professors who teach there have some pretty big ideas. For this story for Macalester Today, I talked to nearly a dozen different professors who shared their thoughts on ways to make our society smarter, healthier, and more balanced.

The great part is that you don’t have to read a 250-page dissertation to understand their clever  concepts—they’ve all been distilled to 250 words or less.

Read the full story here.

I Feel You

Journalists were brought up on the 5 W’s and the H: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. They’re the questions that every news story is supposed to answer. But too often, there’s a component that’s missing from the equation: What did it feel like? For quirky profile stories, it often seems like that all-important question goes missing.

Until now, that is.

In this story for Minnesota Monthly, I talked to more than a dozen people about what it feels like to do the sorts of things that most of us will never try—whether it’s winning a lutefisk eating contest, finding the Winter Carnival Medallion, or leaping into a frozen lake in the middle of January. Their answers are surprising, riveting, and more often than not, insightful.

Read the full story here.

Well Enough

Back when I was in college, “wellness” wasn’t exactly the buzzword it is today. Sure, if you had a cold, the nurses might offer you a little paper sack filled with cough syrup and ibuprofen, but that was about it.

I discovered how much things had changed in the intervening 15 years when I wrote this story for Macalester College’s alumni magazine. These days, there are college wellness centers that offer up everything from massage classes to sleeping seminars to 5K fun runs. Macalester is definitely ahead of the curve compared to most colleges, but the idea is catching on.

Students at many colleges are eager to squeeze the most out of every moment they have in school, and they sometimes sacrifice their health in the process. Thanks to wellness programs, they’re beginning to learn how to take better care of themselves—a skill that they’ll use long after they graduate.

Read the full story here.

People or Money?

Before I started freelancing, I worked for a for the publications office for a college, and I got to see a lot of the inner workings of higher education. Occasionally, I have the opportunity to dig into higher ed issues through trade magazines.

For the most recent issue of CASE CURRENTS, I wrote a story about the tension between alumni association’s twin goals of making alumni connections and supporting development goals.

“Finding the Right Gear” is only available to subscribers, but you can see some of the issue here.

Starting Off Right

Sure, it’s a little late to jump on the New Year’s resolution bandwagon, but if you’re looking to make and maintain changes in your life this year, you might need a little inspiration to stay on track. This story that I wrote for Experience Life magazine offers up a range of different kinds of resolutions—and how to best take action on them.

Read the full article here.

Share Price?

When I’m not writing about personal finance issues, I often tackle features for college alumni magazines.

Recently, a story I wrote about the perks and perils of social media appeared in the Carleton College Voice. In part because social media is such a new phenomenon, plenty of people worry about how the information they offer up on sites like Facebook and Twitter will have an impact on them—and perhaps their children—years from now. Alumni and professors at Carleton on both sides of the argument wrestled thoughtfully with the implications, but my favorite quote came from a recent graduate, Taylor Odean, who now works at Google (and gets in a plug for his employer):

“A hundred years ago, we were still getting our information by telegraph and newsreel. Now anyone with a webcam can set up Google Voice and Video Chat and have a face-to-face conversation with anyone in the world. I think that when social networking has matured, future generations will be baffled by how we ever got by without it.”

Read the full story here.

Published: Credit Card Issuers Dip A Toe Into Social Media

From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn, credit card issuers are starting to add social media to understand their customers—and help them out. Here’s the full story at CreditCards.com.