Image courtesy of Newsweek.

Michele (Richinick) Gorman, AMD’12, started her first co-op in 2009 at The Boston Globe when nearly everyone was sounding the death knell for journalism and the Globe’s parent company, The New York Times was threatening to close the paper.

While her while friends and family urged her to follow a different career path, Gorman, who had wanted to be a reporter since sophomore year in high school, listened to her heart. Today, she is a staff writer at Newsweek, where she works for both the print and online versions.

“I have the best of both worlds,” she says.

Though the industry is digital-heavy, she has always wanted to work for a print publication. “The foundation of journalism is print, so I’m drawn to that,” she says. “And there’s something about seeing your name in print.”

Before Newsweek, Gorman worked as a digital writer at MSNBC.com, where she penned a 64-part series—“Too Young to Die”—on children lost to gun violence. She says it was an “eye-opening and terrible” experience, but that telling the victims’ stories made her feel as if she was working for the greater good.

“A lot of times, I felt like the family therapist,” she says. “Once I broke down the barrier, I would hear the [victim’s] whole life story.”

And Gorman’s commitment to the role of journalism in maintaining an open democracy is steadfast, she is equally as enthralled by its power to touch people’s lives.

“It’s an amazing feeling when one person tells you how much a story means to them.”

Gorman credits her success to her undergraduate placements at The Boston Globe, NBC News, and Boston.com. “I wouldn’t be where I am without co-op,” she says.

That’s what we like to hear.