“It was a lot of training, but once I got the hang of it, I really loved it,” says Shore, who also wrote for The Fordham Ram while majoring in journalism and political science.

In 2022, the California native was selected to join Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local news organizations and pays part of their salaries. He’s been covering public safety and criminal justice issues for The Current, a nonprofit investigative news outlet in Savannah, Georgia.

Last year, he dug into the history of a white police officer who had shot and killed a Black man and was placed on administrative leave with pay.

“We found that he had had a bunch of use-of-force reports against him” when he worked as a prison guard, Shore says, and they went unnoticed when he was hired. The Savannah Police Department now requires a more thorough background check of prospective officers.

“I can see the changes I’m writing about,” Shore says, highlighting the importance of local news. “We all have to live here together and we all want to make it a better place, and that’s something I really value.”

Read more “20 in Their 20s” profiles.

Jake Shore, FCRH ’18, and Sarah Huffman, FCRH ’21, were two of about 300 journalists placed in local newsrooms across the country this year by the program, which focuses on “significant beats” that include health care, climate, and education. The corps members also receive training to help them become better journalists and volunteer their time working with middle and high school students on media literacy and journalism projects.

Beth Knobel, Ph.D., associate professor at Fordham, graduate director for the University’s public media master’s program, and adviser to The Fordham Ram, worked with both of them during their time as undergrads. She said she was proud to see them go on to fill the needs of local newsrooms.

Journalism as Public Service

“It’s thrilling to see our students walking the walk of approaching journalism as a public service,” she said. “Jake and Sarah are both incredibly talented young journalists, and they could have done a lot of things with their time other than go and work for a local news organization, but they understand that America needs a strong local press, and they’re both making that happen.”

Shore, who is originally from California and previously worked at The Island Packet in South Carolina, was placed through Report for America at The Current, a nonprofit news outlet that provides watchdog journalism in Savannah and coastal communities in Georgia. He currently covers criminal justice issues for the news organization.

“They do investigative coverage—they don’t do daily stories,” he said. “They’re seeking to redefine the relationship between news outlets and the communities that they cover.”

Shore said that he loves the opportunity to “do important accountability work” while also “living in the community that I cover. That’s something that’s super important to me.”

He talked about a recent piece of his that dug deeper into the history of a police officer in Savannah who shot a Black man and was placed on administrative leave with pay.

“We decided to look into his past as a prison guard at the local prison here, and we found that he had had a bunch of use-of-force reports against him, and a few investigations and suggestions for additional training,” Shore said. “Then he gets hired by this police department that’s very short on officers, and so it raises a lot of questions for people. And those are questions that might not have been asked if we weren’t asking them.”

Huffman, who is originally from New Jersey and interned and freelanced for Norwood News in the Bronx, is working for Technical.ly in Philadelphia, covering the rapidly changing economics of the city, particularly in the business and tech industries.

“My beat focuses on equity and access in Philadelphia, which are not things I had previous experience in, so we’re learning on the job,” she said.

Fordham’s Influence

Both said that their experiences at Fordham helped them find success in these new positions. Shore said that working at WFUV with the former news director George Bodarky, FCRH ’93, who is now the community partnerships and training editor at WNYC, helped him learn how to be a journalist.

“WFUV, it threw me into the deep end of journalism,” he said. “I learned how to do the basic stuff, and then George was like, ‘Okay, go cover this city council press conference. You’ve got to be there in an hour.’ So I had to go there, and get all the facts, and just learn the hard way how to do everything, and it was just so cool.”

Huffman and Shore both credited their work on The Fordham Ram with helping to develop their reporting skills. Huffman worked her way up from United Student Government columnist to assistant news editor at the paper.

“It gave me a lot of hands-on experience with journalism,” she said. “Having to do journalism day-to-day and be on a time crunch, it was really a great experience, and I had a whole portfolio.”

She expressed gratitude to Knobel for helping her become a part of the program.

“She’s wonderful—she wrote one of my recommendations for Report for America and she’s just been so supportive of this whole process,” Huffman said. “I wouldn’t be here without her.”

Community Involvement

Huffman and Shore said that they value the connections to the community that both Fordham and Report for America tried to emphasize.

“Fordham tries to get involved with the community—it’s the same way with Report for America,” she said. “You get involved with the community and really integrate yourself and get to know the people—what they want and need.”

One way Report for America does that is through a required service project, Huffman said, which for her involves teaching journalism to middle and high school students.

“The service project aspect really spoke to me,” Huffman said.

Shore said that he appreciates getting to live in the community that he’s covering, noting that some of the best stories can be found “just driving down the street.”

“I can see the changes that I’m writing about, and I’m talking to people who live there,” he said. “I’m just as much of a community stakeholder as the person at the community meeting who’s a pastor or who owns a local business. We all have to live here together and we all want to make it a better place, and that’s something I really value.”

Knobel said that this desire to be a part of the community and work to improve it is typical for Fordham students, particularly journalism students.

“We stress from literally the first course that people take that journalism is a public service, and that it does, when done right, make the world a better place by shining a light on injustice and by spreading facts—verified, true facts,” she said. “Our hope is that our journalism students will go off and use journalism to tell compelling stories that make lives better.”

From l to r, students Jack McLoone, sophomore, Christian Goewey, senior, Drew Casey, senior, ESPN’s Brent Musburger, and WFUV’s Bob Ahrens. (Photo by Chris Taggart)

Casey, a native of Union, New Jersey, was broadcasting the game live from Santa Clara, California, for WFUV Radio (90.7 FM/wfuv.org).

For his work at the station, Casey was honored at On The Record, held Nov. 9 at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, with the Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism. Fellow student Jake Shore, FCRH ’18, who was unable to attend, received the WFUV Excellence in Journalism Award for news reporting.

“Covering the Super Bowl was incredible,” he said. “It almost makes me a little cautious about what comes after Fordham.”

At the ceremony, the station bestowed awards named for broadcast legends and WFUV/Fordham alumni Charles Osgood and Vin Scully. This year’s honorees were CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl and ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Brent Musburger.

Shore, a Los Angeles native and a journalism/political science major studying in London this semester, joined the station during his freshman year, thinking he could score tickets to concerts as part of the promotions department staff. He was tapped for news instead.

“It was a lot of training, but once I got the hang of it I really loved it,” he said.

He credited general manager George Bodarky and Robin Shannon, assistant news and public affairs director, with mentoring him.

“From the first day, they want you to be the best you can be. You can’t get away with mistakes. I appreciate that they would hammer that in,” he said.

His training included covering a lot of press conferences. One press conference last spring turned out to be especially newsworthy: a group of politicians gathered outside a house in the South Bronx to protest an owner’s use of AirBnB to rent property as a venue for large parties.

“It was a standard press conference, but then it got so crazy,” he said. “Neighbors came out and started yelling at the guy who owns the house, and the guy started yelling back at them. The local politicians were caught in the crossfire.”

Shore’s AirBnB story earned him honors. The excitement of doing it is also one of the reasons he plans to stick with journalism once he graduates, he said.

Casey said he knew from the very beginning that he wanted to pursue broadcasting. He’d already tried his hand at it at St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, and he chose Fordham in part because of the opportunities WFUV offered.

In addition to covering two Super Bowls, he has spent the past year traveling with the men’s football and basketball teams. Two of his feature stories—one about the Special Olympics, and another about American Pharoah’s Triple Crown win—received awards.

Winning the award is meaningful to Casey because executive sports director Ahrens, for whom the award is named, is also Casey’s mentor. As sports manager, Casey estimated he speaks to Ahrens every day to receive critiques of all of his broadcasts.

“The time that I’ve spent with Bob has been instrumental in my growth as a broadcaster, as a young sports media professional, and as a person,” he said. “Officially, its work, but it doesn’t feel like it.”

Casey said that upon graduation, he’s considering moving to Montana or Idaho—if he can land a gig broadcasting minor-league baseball.

“It’s my passion. I love doing it. I would certainly pick up and go there if the opportunity was right,” he said.