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Medill launches new program to cover Illinois Government

Medill has created the Medill Illinois News Bureau, which will provide local news outlets with coverage of the state legislature and government agencies.

Working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois (CNI), Medill graduate and undergraduate journalism students will develop expertise in covering state government, producing stories and multimedia content that will be distributed to news organizations statewide and in bordering states. CNI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization based in Springfield that is operated by the Illinois Press Foundation. Its vast distribution network includes about 700 newspapers, digital-only news sites and broadcast outlets throughout Illinois and in border state cities such as St. Louis.

“This new Medill Illinois News Bureau is intended to help strengthen coverage of state government at a time when the Statehouse press corps has been depleted and after most newspapers have closed their Springfield bureaus,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “Medill is stepping up to help fill some of that void, and to provide students with invaluable, real-world experience and classroom expertise covering one of the largest and most complex state governments in the nation.”

A team of Medill students will be based in Springfield during the legislative session and will work out of CNI’s newsroom. When the legislature is not in session, these students will develop enterprise pieces and cover breaking state government news from Chicago.

“Our Capitol News Illinois team is very excited about this partnership with Medill,” said Jeff Rogers, the founding editor of CNI and executive director of the Illinois Press Foundation. “Through its Local News Initiative, Medill and Northwestern University are making a significant push to revitalize community journalism and address the growing number of news deserts in Illinois. Because Capitol News Illinois addresses a news desert at the Illinois Capitol, this is a perfect partnership that will further connect communities statewide to their state government. This is a win for everyone, including the fantastic student journalists at Medill, who will get their work published by newspapers and broadcast outlets throughout the state.”

The program is funded with a grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. The McCormick Foundation is a major supporter of the Medill Local News Initiative, a multi-pronged project aimed at bolstering local news locally and nationally. The initiative includes the Medill State of Local News Project, which tracks the number of news outlets nationally and news desert communities, and programs such as the Medill Local News Accelerator, the Midwest Solutions Journalism Hub and Teach for Chicago Journalism. Program participants also will conduct local news audience research.

“We are glad to have Medill and Capitol News Illinois as partners in keeping our citizens informed about the actions of their government and keeping the State of Illinois accountable to its residents,” said Tim Knight, the president and chief executive officer of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

Medill Senior Lecturer Bob Rowley will serve as director of the Medill Illinois News Bureau. Rowley is a former national and foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, where served as national editor for seven years. Rowley covered state government and local politics early in his reporting career.

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Books Uncategorized

OF BLACK, WHITE, AND MANY COLORS

by Michael Chacko Daniels (MSJ68)
With illustrations by Krittika Ramanujan & Aaron Bass

Michael Chacko Daniels, in his inimitable way, paints a wild, sensuous, explosive, and yearning picture of the collision between ideals and base motives, whether played out on a human-relational level or in society at large, and what “experience” at the hands of people with base motives can do to innocence—and what the path to love and resolution may be.

Polarity reigns. There are unforgettable characters on both sides of the world, the racial divide.

There’s the brilliantly drawn Annama, who seeks to control her son from India even at a distance of thousands of miles, and who has visions in the latrine.

There’s the aged, dignified, honorable Mr. Scott, the book editor at Asian Transitions, happily married for sixty years until his wife’s death, who befriends Mathew and his ideals.

There is Huckleberry, streetwise and drug-friendly, who talks to Mathew of the Yoga of Laughter at a time when Mathew has abandoned his ideals in despair.

There is Y. K., the editor at Asian Transitions, who, when Mathew is up for review for the soon-available Editor position, unfairly gives Mathew a poor performance review.

And above all, there is Maria, who, with all her edginess, forms a bridge to Mathew’s past and country by writing secret letters to Annama about her love for Mathew, and locking them up, unsent, in a trunk. This is a testing relationship, not a smooth one. Too many opposites come up against each other: not only the “much darker than your father” of Mathew and the “fully white woman” of Maria, but also their acculturated ways, spirits, and attitudes.

And the language, frequently full of poetry and humor, frustration and transcendence, is a Daniels hallmark. Still, it is Mathew who holds the center for us; and in his ultimate salvation is our own.

Categories
1970s Featured Legacies Featured Legacies Home Home

Richard Lee Harris (BSJ76)

Richard Lee Harris, a beloved family man and distinguished journalist, died in hospice in Washington DC on October 2, 2024. He was 70.

Richard, a member of Medill’s Hall of Achievement, shaped some of the world’s biggest news stories over the past half century as a broadcast producer for NPR’s All Things Considered, news editor at NBC News, and senior producer for ABC News’ “Nightline” for almost two decades. He structured a first-of-its-kind televised town hall between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in 1988 and secured an interview for “Nightline” with Nelson Mandela moments after his release from South African prison. Richard’s pitch for Ted Koppel to interview Brandeis professor Morrie Schwartz on the topic of death and dying put in motion the global best-selling memoir “Tuesdays with Morrie.”

Richard won 14 News & Documentary Emmys and a Columbia DuPont award, and is honored as a standout alumnus in the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism Hall of Achievement.

In his personal life, Richard enjoyed playing word games with his sister, taking photographs of nature and family moments, bonding with the family dog on late-night walks, and savoring coffee and ice cream (or better yet ½ coffee ice cream). Richard spent some of his happiest moments as Papa to his three grandchildren, reading together, filling the bird feeder, and indoctrinating them into Red Sox Nation.

Richard is survived by his loving wife of 44 years, Kit (O’Connell) Harris; daughters Emily Harris, Susannah Harris, and Lily Harris; sons-in-law Duza Baba and Ben Estabrook; grandchildren Miles Baba, Cecelia Baba, and Norah Estabrook, and sister Debbie Mozes, along with many brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews.

Richard was preceded in death by his parents, Mildred ‘Millie’ Harris and Lester ‘Lefty’ Harris, and his uncle Jonas Chaves.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/richard-harris-obituary?id=56561625

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1990s Featured Legacies Home Legacies

Neil King (MSJ90)

Neil King, the former global economics editor at The Wall Street Journal, died Tuesday from cancer.

He left The Journal in 2016. Last year, his book “American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal” documented his 330-mile walk from Washington to New York.

King worked for 15 years in the Journal’s Washington bureau, where he covered beats ranging from terrorism and foreign policy to trade and the international oil industry. He served as national political reporter from 2010 until early 2014, when he took over as editor of the Journal’s economics coverage.

He first joined Dow Jones in January 1995 as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal Europe, based in Prague. In November of that year, he moved to Brussels as chief correspondent of the European Journal’s Central European Economic Review. In 1996, he became the European Journal’s chief diplomatic and security correspondent.

Prior to joining Dow Jones, King was a staff reporter for the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune in 1990 and moved to Prague in 1992 as a freelance correspondent. He did freelance reporting for the European Journal from Prague from 1993 to 1994.

Born in Colorado, King earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Columbia University in New York and a master’s degree from the Medill.

King, former WSJ global economics editor, has died

Categories
Books

Performing the News: Identity, Authority, and the Myth of Neutrality

Dr. Elia Powers (BSJ03)

“Performing the News: Identity, Authority, and the Myth of Neutrality” explores how journalists from historically marginalized groups have long felt pressure to conform when performing for audiences. Many speak with a flat, “neutral” accent, modify their delivery to hide distinctive vocal attributes, dress conventionally to appeal to the “average” viewer, and maintain a consistent appearance to avoid unwanted attention. Their aim is what author Elia Powers refers to as performance neutrality—presentation that is deemed unobjectionable, reveals little about journalists’ social identity, and supposedly does not detract from their message. Increasingly, journalists are challenging restrictive, purportedly neutral forms of self-presentation.

This book argues that performance neutrality is a myth that reinforces the status quo, limits on-air diversity, and hinders efforts to make newsrooms more inclusive. Through in-depth interviews with journalists in broadcasting and podcasting, and those who shape their performance, the author suggests ways to make journalism more inclusive and representative of diverse audiences.

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1970s Featured Legacies Featured Legacies Home

Stephen Byers (MSJ71)

Stephen Byers passed away on June 2, 2024 at the age of 81. Beloved husband of Gen McBride for 24 years. Loving father of Steven Byers, Mark Byers (Mary Krogmann), John (Laura) Caspari and Cate (Kyle) O’Connell. Proud grandfather of Allen Byers, Dawson O’Connell, Brynn O’Connell, Zoe Caspari and the late Hannah O’Connell; step grandfather of Ian McVeigh, Gwen Atkins, Carrie Krogmann and Bella Krogmann. Dear brother of George “Mike” (Judy) Byers, the late Jane (Lynn) Carstens, Bill (the late Janice) Byers, Phyllis (Dick) Lacey, Rick (Dorie) Byers. Dear brother-in-law of Joe McBride, Mike (Kerin) McBride, Pat (Kim) McBride, Dennis (Karen Barry) McBride, Mark (Kim Stanton-McBride) McBride and Tim (Shirley Porterfield) McBride. Proud great grandfather of Lacey and Allen Byers Jr. Steve will be greatly missed by his wonderful home health aide Laura Buchman, his nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and many friends.

Steve attended Indiana State University for his undergraduate degree Northwestern University for his masters in journalism UW Milwaukee for his doctorate in Urban Studies.

Steve was a talented journalist, wrote for several papers and was a reporter and editor for more than three decades at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He then was a professor of journalism at Marquette University.

Steve devoted his life to Gen and her children and their grandchildren for the last 30 years. He brought laughter wherever he went, always brightened the room and taught many how to love with a bigger heart.

He loved basketball, traveling, sailing and cooking. But most of all he loved his many talks with Gen about books and politics. Steve and Gen had the joy of together writing the book Dear Mrs. Griggs: Women pour out their hearts from the heartland.

While later in life Parkinson’s took away many of the things that made him happy, he kept a good spirit and only wanted happiness for those he loved.

Categories
1960s Featured Legacies Legacies

Marcia Smith (BSJ63)

Once in a lifetime. One of a kind. There was no one like her. Marcia Hill Smith of Santa Fe, NM, 83, passed away July 3, 2024 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. She is survived by her husband Herb, son Greg (Lauren McMahon), daughter Ashley Baptiste (Gus Calabrese) and her four loving grandchildren Coleston, Cameron, Elaine, and Brett.

Marcia was born in Saint Louis, MO in 1941 to Irma and Homer Hill of Normandy, MO. She graduated from high school there and attended Northwestern University where she earned a degree in journalism and met her husband of 59 years, Herb Smith.

Marcia and Herb lived on Chicago’s Gold Coast until settling a short time later in Saint Louis area, where Marcia opened her interior design firm, Marcia Smith Designs, Inc., had her children, and moved the family to suburban Clayton, MO. A few years later she moved her design firm to Laclede’s Landing, and later to Ladue, MO where she started Virtuoso, a table-top shop of one-of-a-kind décor for the dining table. She was active for many years in the National Association of Women Business Owners at both the local and national level.
In the mid-1980’s she and Herb built a unique contemporary Bauhaus-inspired home on Lindell Boulevard where they lived until 2003, then enjoyed apartment living in the city’s Central West End before moving permanently to their vacation residence in Santa Fe.

Marcia was inspired by the natural beauty and art scene of Santa Fe.
She dressed to the nines and wore wonderful hats almost every day.
When music, art, design, and dance touched her soul, she shared them with the people in her world. She dedicated herself to bring inspiring design into peoples’ lives every day. Her home and commercial designs focused on being true to yourself and focusing on today. She loved to dance, visit art galleries and museums, and listen to jazz and classical music.

She wrote her own rules and stuck by them with conviction. Manners mattered to her. She was gracious and treated you the way she wanted to be treated. She was bold, and she challenged people around her to be bold, and her lifelong friends were her biggest cheerleaders.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/santafenewmexican/name/marcia-smith-obituary?id=55636357

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Home Medill Research

Major survey of news consumption highlights challenges for entire industry

A sweeping, in-depth survey of the news consumption habits of Chicago-area residents by researchers at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University captures the tectonic shift to smartphone usage from television and print newspapers, and finds that half of consumers believe no one should pay for journalism.

The survey of 1,004 people, one of the largest examinations ever of news consumption habits in the Chicago area, identifies numerous notable findings. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed, or 62%, said they use their smartphones to get local news all the time or often, compared to 52% who watch news on television all the time or often. Thirteen percent of respondents said they read traditional newspapers and magazines often or all the time, while only a limited number of residents (19%) pay or donate money for access to local journalism.

In one of the survey’s most significant findings, Medill’s researchers identified a lack of public awareness of the financially perilous state of local news. A majority of those surveyed (54%) believe local news outlets are doing “somewhat well” financially. Another 17% said they are doing “very well,” meaning that in total, 71% of respondents don’t know the news business is in crisis. Research by the Medill Local News Initiative has chronicled in detail the alarming pace at which news organizations under financial duress are shrinking or disappearing, creating “news
deserts” in communities across the country.

The disconnect between performance and awareness has profound implications for the future of journalism because many local newsrooms need to persuade more consumers to become paying customers for digital news to make up for weak online advertising revenue. But audiences not only don’t believe the news business is suffering, they are skeptical about who, if anyone, should pay for news. About half (51%) of Chicago-area residents said no one should pay for news. Another 27% of respondents said those who can pay should pay.

Much smaller numbers said those who read the most should pay, or everyone should pay. “The most solid pillar of local news is reader revenue, digital subscriptions, or memberships,” said Tim Franklin, Senior Associate Dean at Medill and one of the authors of the survey. “If half of people think that no one should have to pay for news, that shows the news business model has some headwinds.”

The survey, published as a 64-page report, “The Medill Survey: How the Chicago Area Gets its News,” was conducted by faculty of the Medill School with funding by the MacArthur Foundation. The authors are Medill Professor Stephanie Edgerly, Associate Dean of Research; Assistant Professor Yu Xu; along with Franklin, who is also John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and Director of the Medill Local News Initiative. NORC at the University of Chicago, on Medill’s behalf, surveyed adults throughout the 14-county metro area, including parts of southern Wisconsin and northwest Indiana, via a mixture of phone and web methods. The margin of error was +/- 4.66%.

While the survey focused on the Chicago region, the results may bea microcosm of the fast-changing landscape for local news across the country. The study’s goal was to examine the current state of the public’s interest in and reliance on local news, as well as readership, viewership and listenership habits. The survey also explored other views on journalism, including motivations for consuming news and attitudes related to the trustworthiness of reporters to perform their roles well.

Some of the survey’s key findings include:

The public generally remains engaged in following news events. About half (53%) of adults consume local news once or multiple times a day.

There are strong generational differences in reader interest, with almost two-thirds (62%) of adults ages 60+ consuming local news once or multiple times daily, compared to just 39% of people ages 18-29.

The generational difference is also profound for television viewership: While 66% of adults 60+ watch local TV news daily, that number drops to only 22% for 18-29 year-olds.

Chicago-area consumers are fairly positive about what they consume. About half (53%) trust local news media to get things right, a higher portion than found nationally (44%), according to a different study of local news.

While most respondents (85%) have never met a local journalist, 43% said they were interested in attending a meet-and-greet with local reporters.

A principal goal of the study is to give news organizations, journalists, philanthropists, scholars and other interested parties a better understanding of consumers’ behaviors. “Armed with these insights, key stakeholders can explore new pathways to better meet the public’s news needs and explore new business models to support the local journalism our communities need,” Edgerly said.

While the Medill report confirms the impact of technological change on local news consumption habits, it also suggests that some basic assumptions by journalists and civic leaders about how the public values local news may no longer be true. Industry leaders have made passionate arguments in defense of financially struggling newspapers, warning that democratic traditions are at stake because journalists are watchdogs of public interest whose work binds citizens to
communities. But that perspective isn’t widely recognized.

The survey found that the main reason people said they consume local news and information is to meet the needs of everyday life. Specifically, 60% of respondents consume news because it “helps me save and manage money,” while 52% consume news because it “helps me stay healthy.” Far down the list are “helps me feel connected to my community” (15%) as well as “helps me take action to address issues I care about” (12%) and “helps me stay informed to be a better citizen” (10%).

“The big push by philanthropy and policymakers right now to provide money for local news is in a democracy framework: More robust local news helps improve the democratic institutions of a community and the country,” Franklin said. “This survey suggests that message isn’t taking hold with the public yet and there’s more work to do to make the public aware of what’s at stake with the loss of local news. While we as journalists attach altruistic reasons for our work and why people come to local news, many of them are tuning in or reading in a transactional way.”

The report includes a conclusion urging stakeholders with an interest in a free and vigorous press to play a role in elevating local news at a moment when it is under siege. The report also features a brief history of Chicago journalism to offer further perspective on the important findings of the survey.

“How the Chicago Area Gets Its News” is a product of the Medill Local News Initiative, a research and development project aimed at bolstering the sustainability of local news.

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Giving Back Home

Medill’s Fight to Save Local News

Local and regional newspapers, many of them more than 100 years old, going out of business. Broadcast media shrinking. Online startups folding after blowing through millions of dollars in initial funding. And throughout the industry, journalists losing jobs.

In recent years, through its Local News Initiative, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications has gone beyond its traditional role of undergraduate and graduate education, launching a number of outreach programs to assist media professionals in combating the industry’s troubling trends and to help high schools educate young journalists.

“The role of the modern journalism school cannot simply be the training of future journalists and marketers. The industries that we serve are in such turmoil that if our students are to have jobs, to have industries to go into, those industries need leadership, research and someone from outside the industry to help them think outside of the box and chart a path forward,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “So it’s in our vested interest to step outside of what our traditional role was and provide the leadership, the innovation, the creative thinking to enable these organizations and entities to continue. Otherwise, if they implode and cease to function, there will be no place for our students to go.”

This special edition of the Medill magazine takes a look at the Local News Initiative and its outreach programs.

If you want to know the state of journalism in the U.S. today, your best source is the website of Medill’s Local News Initiative, localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu.

From the sobering info contained in an annual report on the state of local news to success stories that illustrate what’s working, the site provides an up-to-date look at the journalism industry. But for those willing to drill a bit deeper, the site also details the pathbreaking work of the Local News Initiative, a key project of Medill.

Founded in 2017, the LNI is an innovative research and development project with the goal of reinventing the relationship between news organizations and audiences while developing new approaches to local news business models. The LNI is led by Professor Tim Franklin, Senior Associate Dean and John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and Director of the Medill Local News Initiative. Franklin came to Medill from the Poynter Institute after a distinguished career in which he served as the top editor of The Indianapolis Star, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun.

“A goal of the Local News Initiative is to do what Medill and a university can uniquely do: impactful research about the
local news industry and local news audiences,” Franklin said.

Unquestionably the most visible product of the LNI has been its annual report on the state of local news, which is led by Visiting Professor Penny Abernathy. The 2023 report, which came out last November, garnered headlines across the country with its grim finding that the U.S. was losing 2.5 local newspapers a week and that 204 counties now have no access or very limited access to local news — “news deserts.” In addition, using metrics developed by Medill’s data scientists, researchers and faculty members, the report identified another 228 counties at risk of becoming news deserts.

However, the report, the LNI website, and the LNI itself now also shine a light on local news bright spots, those media outlets that are succeeding in attracting audiences, doing high-quality journalism — and even making money — in today’s challenging media environment. Creating more of those successes is also a key goal of the LNI.

“We want people to know the challenges around local news — and they are considerable — but we also want to be inspiring new ideas to help local news outlets figure out new business models going forward. And we want to work directly with news organizations to help them become sustainable over the long term,” Franklin said.

To do that, the LNI has created or expanded a number of programs aimed at bolstering local news (see related stories on following pages). While a number of the programs are focused on the Chicago area, the LNI’s research and work includes news organizations across the U.S. The Medill Subscriber Engagement Index, done in conjunction with the Spiegel Research Center, includes more than 100 news organizations from across the country and provides local digital readership and benchmarking data to new outlets big and small for free.

In doing so, Medill hopes to develop models for local news that, while probably different from what media have done in the past, will enable journalism to continue to benefit society, said Dean Charles Whitaker.

“Is that possible? I absolutely think it’s possible. Do I think we’re going to save local news as it has traditionally existed? No. But the goal is to determine what local news and journalism should look like in the rest of the 21st century,” Whitaker said.

“The goal is to preserve vehicles of information that will function as a way for our communities to see themselves, that will serve as another pillar of democracy that will be a bulwark against authoritarianism,” Whitaker added. “I’m agnostic about what form that takes, I just want us to help figure out what that form is. The goal is to ensure local
news, a reliable source of credible information that citizens can turn to, that we can agree upon and that is trusted by everyone, in order to preserve democracy.”

Support for the Local News Initiative and the launch of its programs has come from major grants from the McCormick Foundation, Knight Foundation, Lilly Endowment, other foundations and significant gifts from John Mutz (BSJ57, MSJ58) and Mark Ferguson (BSJ80). Medill now is seeking additional funding from other organizations and from alumni.

After an initial grant of $300,000 from the Lilly Endowment and the Mutz gift, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation made a grant of $1 million in 2019 and then followed up with a $2.4 million grant in 2022 to launch the Local
News Accelerator.

In addition to Lilly and McCormick, the Local News Initiative has received grants and gifts from the Knight Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Microsoft, Google, SNPA Foundation, Myrta Pulliam Charitable Trust and the KAS USA Foundation.

In 2017, Mutz contributed $250,000 to help launch the Local News Initiative and then followed up with a $2 million gift in 2020 to endow a professorship in local news. Tim Franklin,

Medill’s senior associate dean and professor, is the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and the Director of the Local News Initiative.

While a student at Medill, Mutz worked on the copy desk at the Indianapolis News. However, he did not go into journalism, entering politics after a short stint in public relations. He served in the Indiana legislature and was elected lieutenant governor of the state before then going into private business and philanthropy. He was the president of PSI Energy, the largest utility in Indiana, and then headed the Lilly Endowment Inc., one of the world’s largest private foundations. Two of Mutz’s children and two of his grandchildren also graduated from Northwestern.

“One of the things that the Lilly Endowment did when I was president was to encourage the creation of community foundations and we eventually seeded enough community foundations in every county in Indiana. That involvement, as well as running for office, made it crystal clear to me how important a reliable, sustainable — and I might say profitable — local news source is for a community,”
Mutz said.

To make a gift or for more information on how to support the Local News Initiative programs, contact Kyle Daniels, associate director of development, at kyle.daniels@northwestern.edu or 847.467.3736.

Categories
Books

Discovering Your Passion: The Path to Your Authentic Life (MSJ16)

Shadan Kapri (MSJ16)

“Discovering Your Passion: The Path to Your Authentic Life,” is written for all of those who don’t fit the mold, to the dreamers and the nonconformists, the ones who never truly fit in but were born to stand out. This is for you. The truth is that we live in a world that is constantly telling us who to be, how to dress, and how to act from the moment we are born. We are sent messages of what is acceptable and appropriate, but as we get older, we realize that the old rules of how to act or what to do with our lives may not align with who we really are inside.

Each of us is unique and original in so many ways. It’s our greatest asset. Yet, we often lose sight of this. This book is for the person who wants to find their purpose and passion in life. It doesn’t exist by living inside a cubicle or checking off an arbitrary list of society’s expectations. It is found by going within yourself and searching for your answers, searching for your truth.

What seems different is actually the world’s way of giving us unique, independent voices. Each voice can and does move us forward. Each of us has the ability to change lives, but first we have to stop believing the simple lie that to be accepted we have to be like everyone else.

“Discovering Your Passion: The Path to Your Authentic Life,” helps people find their unique voice, their passions, and dreams in life. It provides guidance with journaling and questions that help people find their truth. Not the truth the media tells us. The truth that is in your heart. For real failure is failing to sing that song or tell that story that you were sent here to tell. May this book help you on the path to finding your place in the world. The world needs you now more than ever.