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Alumni Career Advice

Q&A with journalist Antonia Noori Farzan '11

By Antonia Noori Farzan '11

March 6, 2023

Tags Communications

During your time at Hamilton, what kinds of activities and coursework did you explore? (Extracurriculars, majors, favorite classes/professors, etc...).

I majored in classics, but signed up for Intro to Creative Writing during my sophomore year because I thought it would be an easy “A.” It ended up setting the course for the rest of my life, thanks to my professor Jane Springer, who inspired and encouraged me in so many ways.

I planned to apply to law school, but Professor Springer convinced me that I could actually make a living by writing, which I had never even dreamed about. She taught all of us that great writers are the ones who keep their "butts in the chair" — meaning you have to work at it, and work at it, and then work at it some more.

Another class that had a major influence on me was Onno Oerlemans' seminar on the natural and cultural history of the Adirondacks. I can't tell you how much I loved getting to spend a whole semester learning about every imaginable facet of a single, distinct place — its history, geography, and present-day challenges. It's an approach I have tried to replicate in my career as a local newspaper reporter.

Were there any classes that really sparked your interest in this industry? What was your experience like finding a job post-graduation? 

When I was at Hamilton, I never envisioned going into journalism, so I never wrote for any of the campus publications or did any relevant summer internships.

My post-graduation plan was to get a master’s of fine arts  in creative writing after taking a few years off to work. (But it was the midst of the Great Recession, so there weren't many jobs to be had.) My hometown newspaper hired me as an assistant to the advertising department, and after a year or two there, an editor generously gave me the opportunity to write some stories as a freelancer. I eventually became a regular contributor and used those clips to apply for internships, and then to Columbia Journalism School.

After getting my master's degree, I got a fellowship at an alt-weekly in Florida, then took a staff writer job at another alt-weekly in Arizona, and finally landed a job at the Washington Post. During the pandemic, I moved back to my home state of Rhode Island and realized I never wanted to leave. I'm now a reporter for the Providence Journal, which is the best job I can possibly imagine — I missed working in local news, and find Rhode Island endlessly fascinating.

Finding my way in journalism wasn't as easy as this probably makes it sound. I spent several years freelancing while simultaneously working in unrelated dead-end jobs, and balancing internships with odd jobs like cat sitting, selling flowers, and managing a yoga studio. I didn't get my first full-time job in the industry until I was 26, and I had to move across the country for it.

What advice would you give to Hamilton students currently interested in pursuing a career in journalism?

My number one piece of advice is to take language classes — I wish I had learned Spanish when I had the opportunity at Hamilton! Speaking a second language is incredibly helpful for your career, especially if you're interested in reporting from abroad, or covering immigrant communities.

It's also good to have a basic understanding of statistics and economics, and I would recommend taking a few government/political science classes to better understand how the political process works (I did not do any of those things, and wish I had).

One of the most challenging things about journalism is how often you have to quickly get up to speed with an unfamiliar topic for the sake of a story. Over the past month, I've had to learn a lot about fire safety regulations, old growth forest, rural mail delivery, election law, and affordable housing subsidies. On the flipside, you never know when some random piece of knowledge will come in handy. So follow your interests when you're signing up for classes — you may find yourself digging out your notes, years or even decades later.

Lastly, I recommend starting your career somewhere small, where you can actually publish stories instead of being a glorified assistant. I got so much more hands-on experience (and had a lot more fun) as a freelancer for a small local paper than I did as an intern for big national publications. When you apply for jobs in journalism, you're pretty much exclusively judged by the quality of your published work, so having a prestigious name on your resume is much less important than what you've actually produced.