Tonya Maxwell - Spring 1999

I graduate from Indiana University in the spring of 2000. I'm looking for a beat reporting job at a daily newspaper. And I've got experience and interest in a variety of beats: local and state politics and government, law enforcement, education, minorityissues and military affairs among others. During the 2000 legislative session, I've been reporting at the Indiana Statehouse, covering legislators from the state's Northwest delegation for The Times of Northwest Indiana. My primary beat is the state Senate, and I've wrtten about legislation that, among other things, would establish a hate crimes law in the state, allow the Ten Commandments to be posted in schools and roll back kindergarten enrollment dates. I was a reporter for the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire and a member of the Semester in Washington program's inaugural class in 1999. After that, I worked in the summer for the Ventura County Star in Ventura, Calif., as a general assignment reporter, often writing feature pieces or filling in for cop and court beats. I've also interned with the CNN bureau in Washington, D.C. After high school, I served in the Army for nearly three years as a nuclear, chemical and biological specialist at Fort Hood, Texas. I was honorably discharged in 1996 and enrolled in Indiana University, where I major in journalism and political science. I'm an Indiana native. But I'm flexible about future opportunities and locations.

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