Please welcome our newest meeting documenter, reporter Jacqueline Vontersch, who comes to us from Elon University and lives in Prince William County. PLN meeting documenter reporters are a community of trained and paid residents who report on local government meetings in PLN’s coverage area.
Q: Why do you think community journalism is essential?
Vontersch: Journalism holds governments and corporations accountable to the public, and without it, a democratic country will fail.
Q: What’s your past professional experience? (work experience, school or civic clubs, education level, etc.)
Vontersch: I have worked with Elon Local News, Elon’s school newspaper. I interned in production for Bonnie Erbe’s To The Contrary in Washington, D.C. I write, record, edit, and report in my Journalism classes at Elon University.
Q: What do you like best about the community in which you live?
Vontersch: The Prince William County/ Northern Virginia people I’ve known are resilient. We are fighters. These people do their best with what they’ve got and are unafraid to strike out on their own to honor their sense of right and wrong.
Q: What do you like to do for fun when not working?
Vontersch: I love singing, and I love music. Some of my favorite moments are singing along to songs in the car with my good friends, making up harmonies (and often failing). If we’re lucky, we can dance along too.
Q: When you leave PLN, what is one thing you hope to have accomplished?
Vontersch: I hope to understand better the ins and outs of a regular reporting job for local news, and I hope to have a better sense of newsworthiness and how to recognize it in the everyday proceeding of local governments.
Do you want to join our team of dedicated documenter meeting reporters and be trained and paid to report the news of our communities? Please complete our quick application form today.
