Alumni News

On Monday, March 6, the upper school had the pleasure of being visited by Wooster Alum, Jane Timm '07. During her time at Wooster, Timm was the editor of "The General" which has now come to be known as "WiNK".

"I joined the student newspaper when I was young (mostly to hang out with the other kids on the paper!) but I ended up getting really excited about the medium and determined to improve my skills. By the end of my three years on the paper, I knew I wanted to be a journalist. I refused to apply to colleges without a good newspaper."

Before giving a chapel talk to the entire upper school, Ms. Timm spoke to Mr. Sacco's Slavery class, and both of Mrs. Thaler's Publications classes about a variety of topics. She shared some of her extensive knowledge of the world of journalism, told us about her time at Wooster, and how one thing that surprised her the most was the fact that students are allowed to walk on the grass.

Ms. Timm has been covering the campaigns of Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and most notably Donald Trump for the past two years. The story of how she got assigned to cover these candidates is quite interesting...

"I was the last reporter to get my candidate assignments, so I got all the wildcards — the outsiders with limited political experience. Two years ago, all eyes were on Jeb Bush not the reality TV star with a penchant for Twitter! "

Jane Timm speaking to the upper school during community time (pictured above)

During her presentation, Ms. Timm shared a few words of advice for students that are interested in journalism.

"Don't major in journalism! Practice journalism at school papers and internships, but major in the things you want to write about (economics, history, whatever!) or the things that will help you do it (languages!!)"

Timm also praised Mrs. Thaler for the way that she runs publications class. She emphasized the importance of getting actual experience with writing articles, and how WiNK is a great way to learn journalistic skills.

I asked Ms. Timm what her favorite moment of her career was (thus far). She said this:

"Attending church with Dr. Ben Carson the day before the Iowa caucuses, and writing that exclusive feature from an Iowa café the pastor said I just had to eat at, was one of my favorite moments. It was a thoughtful story during a crazy busy period, and one of my favorite of all time. "

She also shared her funniest Wooster memory

"Our history teacher used to throw a Kermit stuffed animal out of third floor Coburn windows. It really brought defenestration to life for me."

While I was sitting with Ms. Timm at lunch, Krishna McKinney '18 came over to her and said "Hello, you probably don't remember me, but you were my big sister when I was in first grade!"

Ms. Timm described the experience of being reunited with her little sister as "Amazing! ".

"She was so tiny when I knew her, now she's (almost) applying to college!"

Pictured above is Krishna '18 (left) and Jane Timm '07 (right)

One of my biggest takeaways from everything that Ms. Timm spoke to us about was the fact that Wooster is a special place because it allows people to step outside of their comfort zone, and try new things. She described Wooster as a place that "makes you work hard, but it teaches you that there isn't just one kind of success or one end point. It helped me find the end point that made sense for me."

Currently, Jane's end point is being a journalist for NBC. Wooster's student newspaper, "The General", served as a medium for her to discover her passion, which led her to being able to make a career out of it.

Special thanks to Jane Timm for answering questions and spending her day speaking to students!

Thanks to Krishna McKinney '18 for taking a picture with Ms. Timm!

Thanks to Mrs. Kriegel for sharing her photos of Ms. Timm's chapel talk!