Reuters White House Correspondent Jeremy Pelofsky '97 was on campus recently speaking with students and faculty as the 2008 Distinguished Alumnus in Residence, a program established in 2003 by the College Key to bring alumni of note to campus.

During a break in an otherwise full schedule, he offered some observations on how his time at Bates relates to his current job working in the West Wing.

Pelofsky's career in journalism took form while he was still a student at Bates, when he took an internship with Bloomberg News at the end of his junior year. At graduation, that wire service offered him a job in Washington, D.C., covering the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Treasury Department. His arrival coincided with financial crises in Asia, Russia and Latin America. "It was the most intense two years I had ever experienced to that point," Pelofsky says. "It was a test, whether you sank or swam in a newswire environment. Speed is everything, with accuracy, obviously. Luckily, I swam."

 After two years, he took a job at Reuters that promised more chances to cover Washington politics.

Pelofsky says the writing skills he acquired at Bates gave him an edge in writing for a wire service. "When I came out of Bates, I felt like I had a graduate school education. I had that extra experience. I remember a first-year seminar with (Associate Professor of Politics) Leslie Hill. She crushed me on my writing. It was devastating, but I learned. Along with (Professor of English) Lew Turlish and (Associate Professor of History) Hilmar Jensen, those professors really taught me how to write. That was key to being able to synthesize news into a compact story for publication. Bates really focuses well on the ability to write. And that is a primary requirement in any job."

The interdisciplinary nature of a Bates education also helps in Pelofsky's current work: "Iran, North Korea, climate issues, steroids, trade -- there are so many issues in which you must have some level of understanding and experience to be able to cover them as a wire service reporter. What I like about Bates is that people are engaged. They want to talk about the issues, and to work on the issues."

Read Pelofsky's blogs at: http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/author/jeremypelofsky/