Resume
Experience
Reporter, Business Insider New York, USA, October 2010 – present.
http://www.businessinsider.com
Writer for the Money Game vertical (economy) covering emerging markets and contribute general features to the home page. Source and edit photos, create slideshows and guest posts. Data entry for Blackboard, building an online inventory of companies and the people who run them.
Freelance August 2010 – October 2010.
Contribute general news stories to Patch.com that include pieces on water tax hikes in Scotch Plains and Fanwood decrease in and cuts in funding to state scholarship program. Contribute science related news articles to Livescience.com. Piece on dispersal enhancing traits in island voles picked up by MSNBC. Translated subtitles from English to Hindi for Mediastorm project Undesiredon domestic violence in India.
Staff Reporter, The Bronx Ink New York, USA, August 2009 – May 2010.
http://bronxink.org
Reported, wrote and photographed pieces which include long-form and spot news on HIV/AIDS in Highbridge; 2009 New York mayoral election; housing crisis in the Bronx; and a multimedia piece on single teenage father. Member of the web team, responsibilities included managing content, comments, editing photos. Experience as day editor and managing editor.
Staff Reporter, Journey to Jerusalem New York, USA, Feb. – March 2010.
http://coveringreligion.org
Reported pieces on controversial women’s Talmud studies in the Modern Orthodox Jewish community and the Bene Israel Jewish community’s migration from India to Israel. Travelled to Jordan and Israel reported and photographed a piece on settlement conflicts in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, photographed protest prayers and filed daily dispatch as well as photos for the day on the website.
Staff Writer, Verve Magazine Mumbai, India November 2007 – June 2009.
http://www.verveonline.com
Reported and wrote three magazine pieces a week for Mumbai’s first high-end cultural and lifestyle magazine. Wrote stories of varied complexity for the magazine’s cultural pages and the front of the book. Covered art, books, film, music, travel and theater and contributed photo essays. Produced a 13-pg feature for a special commemorative issue. Interviewed police, doctors, witnesses, victims, family and survivors of the Mumbai terror attacks, 2008.
Education
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York, USA [May 2010]
Master of Science, Print Journalism. Coursework in environment, science and community reporting. Religion reporting in Israel and Jordan. Audio and digital media training. Long-form piece on the effects of music on Tourette’s syndrome.
St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India [2003 - 2006]
Bachelor of Arts in English, Psychology and Islamic Studies. Awarded Honor’s Program certificate of merit concurrent with the B.A. Degree.
Photography http://www.lighstalkers.org/mamta
Includes photos of news events and travel across Israel, Jordan, California, New York.
Other
Academic paper “Gimmicks & Glamdolls – Myth in Advertising” on beauty and diamond myths published in annual English Journal, Ithaka 2005-2006.
Skills
Digital Photography, Photoshop, WordPress, Final Cut Pro, Twitter.
Other Languages
Fluent in Hindi. Basic Kannada and Marathi.
Organizations
Member of South Asian Journalists Association
References available on request
Watch me talk about my experience reporting in the Middle East with some of my classmates at Columbia: Journey to Jerusalem from Rory Kress on Vimeo.