Elizabeth Owens - Summer 2004

I ask a lot of questions and I never stop editing. Let’s get that out in the open right now – not that it would take you more than five minutes in my presence to figure that out. I’m a self-proclaimed AP style geek, and a grammar class this semester brought out a whole new nerdy side of me – a side that some of my friends wish had never appeared.

I was a writer first, and then I realized journalism allows you to write, learn, be challenged and ask the tough question. I saw this as a clever way to satisfy my relentless curiosity. After that revelation, I put my plans to write the next great American novel on hold (just kidding) and set off to see about this reporting business. Reporting and I are still quite the pair.

I’m going to be a senior at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in the fall. I just finished a year as editor of The Times-Delphic, Drake’s student newspaper. We’re a twice-weekly newspaper that has a fabulous love/hate relationship with the student body. They love to hate us, and they love to read us. This editorship was my best journalistic experience to date. I developed a much thicker skin, a better nose for news and a keener ability to see the holes in a story. This was the perfect year for me to be editor with all the bustling excitement of the Iowa caucuses. The caucuses afforded the TD staff the incredible chance to meet the candidates and cover national news from our campus. The experience was thrilling, and it added even more fuel to my desire to work in Washington. And here I am.

My job as TD editor also taught me the importance of the First Amendment. A federal government subpoena hit Drake hard, and the resulting gag order left university officials mute. The precise language of the gag order said that all university employees were forbidden to speak about the subpoena. Drake’s lawyer said that by some definitions I was a university employee. I saw his point, and I saw my duty to publish. I also saw the First Amendment on my side and felt that I was on the winning team. I wrote the story, published it and never regretted my decision. Even if they had thrown me in jail, which was an option according to some of the lawyers I spoke with, I still wouldn’t have regretted my decision because I firmly believe in the First Amendment and my responsibility as a reporter and editor to be a watchdog of the government.

I’m in love with candy and I’m excited about being in Washington (those two statements are completely unrelated), mostly because I have lived in Iowa all of my life. My parents are farmers, and I have a younger brother. When I tell people here that I’m from Iowa, I always get a funny look. In Iowa, we like to think that states such as Wyoming are the ones people haven’t really heard of, but here there seems to be a similar amount of confusion surrounding Iowa. We’re an integral part of the Midwest and YOUR food production.

I’m somewhat messy (my roommates will be the true tests of the accuracy of this statement) and can be a bit absentminded at times. Although I typically have no problem figuring out what questions to ask, where my keys disappear to is often a mystery to me. My staff described me as a softie with a hard shell that is always pushing everyone to do better. I hope they meant that as a compliment.

I would like (read: LOVE) to cover politics in Washington as a career – at least that’s the current plan. I’m here this summer to figure out if my plan really is my destiny. I have no doubts that newspaper journalism will be a big part of my future and I hope that political reporting is in the cards as well.

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