When duty called, it was time to step up, even if the work wasn’t on my own desk.

I spent the majority of Friday working with the breaking news team at USA Today to get all the most up-to-date news to our readers on the shooting in Colorado.

It was every emotion in the book: fun, frustrating, stressful, exhilarating and everything in between.

The subject matter is an issue very close to me, as a Hokie, but nevertheless, I put those thoughts out of my mind and contributed to coverage that not once during the day had to issue a correction.

If you didn’t see the resulting story, it can be found here. Though I didn’t get a byline, the story that has been recommended thousands of times on Facebook has my name as a contributor at the bottom.

I learned a lot from the experience, but the main thing that I’ll take away is that I am a very good researcher on deadline. I attribute the research work I did at the New York Times last semester for the skills I’ve developed in that area.

Through tragedy, solace can sometimes be found through journalism. I think the whole team at USA Today did a wonderful job of reporting quickly and accurately and I’m proud to have been a small part of it.

That being said, I’m looking forward to getting back to my data and finishing my own story. It was nice to get out of my comfort zone for a day, but I’m very ready to get back to the data desk.

Jul 21, 2012 | Internship, Research
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