Alumni Highlight: Vera Bergengruen '07

VB: 2007

 

VB: I was mediocre at a lot of sports (swimming, sailing, cross-country and track & field) with an equally mediocre foray into theater and musical theater.

 

VB: Dartmouth College

 

VB: Government with a focus on International Relations

 

VB: I started 9th grade at RE only three years after moving to the U.S. and learning English. Dr. John King was the first teacher to recognize I might be a good writer and work with me on honing those skills — now I do that for a living, so thank you DK!

VB: That despite my mediocre efforts in high school, I now run half marathons (and am faster than I was back then!)

 

VB: I consulted my RE friends—luckily we’re still very close—and we remembered that "DotA" by Basshunter was on repeat at Grad Nite (as well as a lot of Akon, Maroon 5 and Fall Out Boy).

 

VB: I love to be in the middle of the biggest stories happening around the world: documenting conflicts, elections, protests, revolutions in politics and technology. But more than anything it’s a privilege to ask people questions for a living—from world leaders and other powerful figures to the ordinary people living with the consequences of their decisions—and sometimes get to see my investigative reporting lead to lasting changes.

 

VB: Coffee

 

VB: I just started “The Sympathizer” by Viet Thanh Nguyen (there’s now a show based on the book out as well) and so far am loving it - undercover spies, divided allegiances, geopolitical drama, what more do you need?

VB: I remember wanting to become a journalist for National Geographic when I was in elementary school, and while at RE I’d often download BBC interviews to listen to on my iPod mini while walking our dog or working in the Pagoda (my mom says I was an early podcast adopter!). Even so, I took several detours to get here — I didn’t get my first real reporting job until I was 26 — so if any RE students or alums want to chat about entering journalism, I’m always happy to help!

 

VB: I’ve been lucky to travel to a lot of cool places, both for work and fun, but one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had was traveling to Ukraine last year on a reporting trip. Kyiv is an incredibly beautiful city, and experiencing it in wartime—empty of visitors, with regular air raid sirens, with locals eager to share their perspectives on the war—was unforgettable. And taking a darkened night train across western Ukraine towards the Polish border, with women and children escaping the war, was an experience that will stay with me for a long time.

Follow Vera on her blog, "The Chaos Beat."