Isabella Grullón Paz ‘18 has considered herself a journalist since she was in the second grade. As a child, she would listen to her father and his friends talk about politics, and this sparked her interest in the news.
When Grullón Paz visited the Park School she knew she was going to have the opportunity to start building her journalism career. “I just really liked how hands-on Park was and how I would have the chance to start reporting from day one, which was very much the case,” said Paz.
In addition to having hands-on opportunities, the small class size at the Park School allowed Paz to open up and become more confident.
“If I didn't have that intimacy with professors and my colleagues around me, I would not have the development I had in the four years that I was there.”
Throughout her time at Ithaca College, Grullón Paz immersed herself in numerous clubs and extracurriculars. Paz was a staff writer for Buzzsaw Magazine, columnist for the Ithacan, and international student senator for the student governance council.
Today Grullón Paz uses the skills she learned at IC in her job as a politics assistant with The New York Times. Although every day is different, she can always count on Mondays to be her busiest day. “I’ll get my tasks for the week, which usually is doing background research for a story, background interviews for a story,” said Paz. “Then helping the people at the desk and contacting teams from candidates and campaigns to get the information that we need to plan the rest of the week.”
Paz feels that the multi-faceted journalism curriculum at the Park School prepared her for her job.
“Because I consider myself first and foremost a print journalist, I also know how to think about the visuals of a story or the audio of a story or how to make the story more interactive data driven story,” said Paz. “I know a little bit about everything, I know I can interject in these conversations and have conversations with people across the board.”