Ayman Mohyeldin is a journalist for NBC who previously worked for Al Jazeera and CNN. He covers issues in the Middle East including the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and current Syrian Civil War.
Amber Cohen: You received a bachelor’s degree at AU in international relations with a focus on the European Union. How has this background helped you as a journalist covering the Middle East?
Ayman Mohyeldin: Regardless of what you study, the rigors of academic life, the research, the analysis, the debating… all come in handy as tools of the trade as a journalist. Studying international relations helped introduce me to some of the historically pressing issues that are still relevant today not only in Europe but elsewhere.
AC: When you were at AU, what was your favorite course and professor, and why?
AM: My favorite course was taught by Mohammed Abu Nimer. I believe it was called peace and conflict resolution. It was an extremely stimulating class, engaging, lively and thought provoking.
AC: What activities did you participate in and what was your favorite place to hang out around campus?
AM: Nothing beats the Quad on a nice D.C. day. Although [Terrace Dining Room] came a close second and the coffee shop at the School of International Service was my home away from home. They had the best cheese croissants. I was a huge soccer fan so I supported the team as much as I could. I spent a lot of time off campus looking for internship opportunities early on.
AC: Who were the most memorable people you interviewed so far in your career? What were the top three news events you covered?
AM: The most memorable person I interviewed was the family of Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian produce vendor who set himself on fire and triggered the first protests that gave birth to the Arab Spring. The top three news events I have covered were the 9/11 attacks, the 2008 Gaza War [and] the Egyptian revolution. The Iraq War is also up there.
AC: You were the first journalist to enter the network of tunnels that ran between Gaza and Egypt, covered the Iraq War, bombings in the Middle East, the Egyptian Revolution and currently the Syrian civil war. Obviously, you are not a stranger to covering conflicts. What skills are necessary for handling these high stress situations and how do you mentally recover from the aftermath of these situations?
AM: Every person responds to stress differently. I am not sure they are all skills, but some of the things that have helped me include patience, spirituality, good support network, including friends and family. On a personal level, I try to keep a sense of perspective to what is happening around me. An acute sense of awareness helps in reading the situation and determining the appropriate response to a stressful situation. It’s always important to communicate with those around you and closest to you in those moments. In terms of recovery: good food, good company and lots of relaxation.
AC: What advice would you give to aspiring journalists at AU, particularly ones who want to cover overseas conflicts?
AM: My advice to aspiring AU journalists is to seize the amazing laboratory they have by being in D.C. The city is a global media center with every major international and local news outlet operating there. Don’t be driven to cover conflict because your passion is misguided if you [are] simply drawn to the adrenaline of conflict or war reporting. Rather, find your passion in trying to understand divisions, similarities and cultures among people or regions and then pursue that to your fullest ability even if it means doing so will take you to conflict zones. I never set out to cover conflicts or wars, but I wanted to cover the Middle East and understand every nuance there is to the region. Unfortunately, you can’t understand the region without understanding the persistent regional conflicts and their legacies whether it’s the Israeli occupation, the U.S. war in Iraq or the rise of militancy.
Steven Goff writes about sports for the Washington Post with a focus on soccer. He followed the World Cup and assisted NBC with covering the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Amber Cohen: What was your major at AU and how did the program help you to eventually become a journalist at the Washington Post?
Steven Goff: I majored in print journalism, fall 1984 to spring 1988. During my freshman year, one of the editors in The Post sports [department] came to campus to critique that week’s edition of The Eagle. I introduced myself. He told me the Post regularly hired college students to fill part-time jobs in the newsroom. I jumped at the opportunity. The following autumn, in fall 1985, I began working at The Post. The editor who hired me, Mike Trilling, was also an AU grad.
AC: When you were at AU, what was your favorite course and professor, and why?
SG: Frank Jordan was one of my journalism professors – an old-school guy who taught me the fundamentals of reporting and writing. I am forever grateful.
AC: What activities did you participate in and what was your favorite place to hang out around campus or in Washington, D.C.?
SG: Most of my free time was spent at The Eagle offices in [the] Mary Graydon Center and with the friends I made through the paper.
AC: You’re a sports writer for the Washington Post and have been working there since 1985. How did you land this job and what has made you stay at the paper for almost 30 years?
SG: Beyond my initial hiring, I worked my way up from a news aide answering phones and assisting staff writers and editors to covering high school and college sporting events and ultimately turning soccer into a full-time beat. I also balanced writing and copy editing for several years. I have covered international soccer since about 1992 and MLS since its inception in ’96. It’s a great gig with lots of overseas travel. I’ve been on assignment in about two dozen countries and covered five World Cups. Next summer in Brazil would be No. 6. No reason to ever leave.
AC: One of the biggest challenges facing journalists is the transition from print to online journalism. You’ve not only write for the print product but also have a blog on the Washington Post’s website. Describe how you handled this transition and how you ended up writing a blog.
SG: The transition was not difficult or awkward because I always wanted a platform beyond print to share information and report the news. It also allows me to write in a different tone and voice, more conversational and less formal than the strict guidelines of the print edition. The blog started up in early 2007 and has been steaming along ever since. My Twitter account (with 99,000 followers) and Facebook page are critical to my work as well.
AC: What advice would you give to aspiring journalists at AU, especially since college graduates are facing a competitive job market? How does a college graduate from AU differentiate themselves from other graduates?
SG: With the steady decline of the news industry, you’ve got to really want it badly to make a career of it. It’s going to mean low to modest pay, weekend work, never shutting off your phone, missing important personal events, moving around the country. My advice is to learn as many skills as possible. Attempting to break into the business strictly as a writer is short-sighted. You do need to write well, but you also need to be able to shoot your own photos and video, build a brand, market yourself [and] connect with industry professionals.
Jarrett Bellini is a writer and humorist at CNN. His weekly column “Apparently This Matters” covers topics in social media and of popularity on the Internet.
Amber Cohen: What was your major at AU and how did the program help you to eventually become a journalist at CNN?
Jarrett Bellini: I was a visual media major at American and more than anything, it gave me a taste of life in the crazy world of production. Unfortunately, I graduated in 2001 and technology has changed so much over the years that my extensive training in VHS editing is no longer relevant. For those of you wondering what VHS is, just think of your home videos on YouTube, but burned onto magnetic tape and sealed up in a large, cumbersome plastic rectangle that you have to then insert inside a different and larger plastic rectangle attached to your TV. Ah, those were the days.
AC: When you were at AU, what was your favorite course and professor and why?
JB: My favorite professor at AU was John Douglass. He taught screenwriting and was great about guiding me through a spec [speculative] script for “The Simpsons.” It was a crossover murder mystery with the cast of “Law & Order,” and I was really proud of it. I also had a professor my freshman year who began his first lecture by playing Bruce Springsteen’s “Youngstown” on the guitar. I forget the professor’s name, but he had me with “Here in northeast Ohio / back in eighteen-oh-three…”
AC: What activities did you participate in and what was your favorite place to hang out around campus?
JB: My favorite place to hang out on campus was the LA Quad. Those benches were the beginning and end of most of my bad decisions.
AC: Let’s talk about your band, Animal & the Evolvers. How did you end up in the band and where did that name come from?
JB: Some neighbors of mine needed a bass player for a one-off charity concert and they knew that I played and probably had nothing better to do with my time. I had to learn a whole bunch of songs in less than a month, but the gig went really well. So we decided to make Animal & the Evolvers official and two albums later, we’re still the greatest band ever to come from Alaska Avenue in Atlanta. I think we might also be huge in Portugal. The band’s name stems from the fact that our drummer is a lot like the muppet Animal. He’s insane with those sticks. The Evolvers part we just thought sounded cool.
AC: You’ve been working at CNN since 2004. Describe your journey at the network. How did you end up writing your current column “Apparently This Matters”?
J*B*: I basically started out as a production assistant – the guy who counts to three and points at the camera. But from day one, I wanted to write a column for the website and it literally took me about eight years to make that dream a reality. Eventually I worked my way over to CNN.com where my primary job was (and is) video production. But I always looked for small opportunities to write in my offbeat style so I could build a small portfolio within the company and also a certain level of trust. When “Apparently This Matters” finally happened, it was a perfect storm of hard work, strategy, and a lot of luck. Timing is everything.
AC: What advice would you give to aspiring journalists at AU, especially since college graduates are facing a competitive job market? How does a college graduate from AU differentiate themselves from other graduates?
JB: If you want to get into original video production– producing, shooting and editing your own work– it’s absolutely vital to have several quality packages that show all of these skills as well as your ability to simply tell a really good story. And having a fancy website for all of this is actually less important than just showcasing them on a personal Vimeo page. So you have to create. The same goes for writing. It’s not enough to just go through school and hope to get a job. Writers have to write, and videographers have to… videograph. I’m not sure that’s actually a word.
Carol M. Highsmith is a photographer and author who donated her life’s work of 100,000 photos to the Library of Congress for public use. She published 36 books, photographed for the American Institute of Architects and had her Jefferson Memorial photo chosen as the first U.S. Post Office Priority Mail Stamp in 2002.
Amber Cohen: Describe your experience studying at AU. What led you to study photography?
Carol Highsmith: I took a trip to Russia and before I left someone gave me a camera. I came back with interesting images and decided that I wanted to pursue learning more about photography. I also wanted to complete my studies so that I could receive a college degree. I was working at WMAL-Radio at the time and they paid for all of my schooling. I was an older student in my 30s at the time and I went through [AU’s] APEL program. By doing that, I was able to write about my life experiences and earn college credit. It was wonderful – I knocked off about [two] years. I loved my time at AU, mainly going out at night with my peer group. The professors were amazing and bright. I was proud when I graduated.
AC: When you were at AU, what activities did you participate in? Where was your favorite place to go on campus or in Washington, D.C.?
CH: I was very busy working while I was a student so I really did not have time to hang out.
AC: What are your top three most memorable projects you conducted? What made these projects so special to you?
CH: AU let me pretty much write my own program. I took loads of photography classes and grew tremendously during my time at school. So much so that when before I graduated, I started my own company in photography.
AC: You donated more than 100,000 photos to the Library of Congress, creating a unique one-person archive for public use. Why did you decide to donate your work and what do you think the public can learn from your photography?
CH: One of my projects was to shoot interesting photographs. I was able to get into the Willard Hotel, which was completely demolished at the time and take images. While I was there I saw a collection of photographs that were taken at the Willard in 1901. That is how they put the Willard back together again. There were no architectural drawings. The images were taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston who donated her images, copyright-free during her lifetime. I decided to follow in her footsteps and document my lifetime. My collection and hers now sit in the top [six] featured collections at the Library of Congress out of 15 million images.
AC: What advice would you give current undergraduate students about making the most of their time at AU? What should they do in order to stand out from everyone else in the job market?
CH: You need to think differently. I have made a career out of giving my images away. No one thought I would make it. And yet I have and I’m well known. Try not to think like others. Follow the beat of your own drummer. Look at Steve Jobs at Apple. He was unsuccessful, lost his job, had no support and he turned it all all around. Only you can determine how successful you will be. Don’t let anyone tell you your idea is nuts. Coffee was everywhere when Starbucks started…yet they made it special. Books were dime a dozen when [Amazon] started just selling books…look at them now. Anything and everything is possible. Don’t ever be defeated…you are special and live on earth for a purpose.
acohen@theeagleonline.com
