Professor Spotlight: Alison Schafer, The Woman, The Myth, The LEGEND!

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By Kaleigh Werner, EIC Academics

I just want to take a minute to hype up not only this incredible educator, but the class that she teaches – Introduction to News Writing and Reporting!

Imagine getting to class, sitting down, pulling out your laptop or your notebook (if you really like to pay attention), and then your professor announces, “You have the whole hour and fifteen minutes to go outside, find a story, get a quote, write the story, and then hand it in to me.”

This is typical for Professor Alison Schafer, as she, “Runs the room as if it were a news room.” So, essentially you aren’t just sitting down and pretending like you haven’t essentially read the lecture you are being taught.,

Professor Schafer abolishes the stereotypical approach to teaching and embedding course information into the minds of college students looking to pursue a degree in a particular field. She takes the meaning of “practice assignments” to a whole new level while simultaneously encouraging her students to be up to date by each Tuesday on what is happening in the news for her weekly quizzes. I never thought I would be able to fill awkward silences so well with all the conversation starters I now have.

For some background and my own personal inquiry, I sat down with Professor Schafer to probe her on her expertise. While she is an adjunct professor for the School of Media and Public Affairs here at GWU, Professor Schafer also works for the World Bank, traveling to places like Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Her love and need to travel, even just strictly around the country, started after she graduated college and became a TV news broadcaster in Connecticut.

My curiosity peaked when she started rattling off the different publications and stations she worked as a journalist for, but then somehow ended up at the World Bank.

So, I asked her, “Did you get burnt out, what made you make that switch in professions?” she responded by saying, “Well, I had kids…It’s still hard for women I think to do it all. I am totally a radical feminist, but I think it was such an unpredictable job. My job was always on the line and it became so hard to have little kids and not knowing when I would be home.”

However, while she did emphasize this “unpredictability,” Schafer made sure to calm my nerves reassuring me that it is possible for others to continue in journalism even while starting a family.

The necessity to not be required to sit in a cubicle for the whole day five to seven days a week, is a mutual feeling between us. Professor Schafer explained that in journalism, “You come in at nine o’clock in the morning and you have no idea what your day is going to be like.” In addition, according to her a journalist’s schedule also depends on location the topic and area of news that you could be covering varies.

I asked the final question of why she went into this field in the first place. “I am curious.” Professor Schafer responded, “I wanted to go out and talk to people and meet people. My career has been great, I’ve been down in submarines and up in helicopters.” Nothing more to it.

Schafer practices what she preaches. She feels pure excitement by exploring the country and reporting. If you don’t take this class, you should definitely still get coffee with this amazing role model, Professor Alison Schafer.