First-year Clinton School student Christine McCall brings a unique form of public service in her path to the Clinton School: Journalism.
A graduate of Boston University, McCall has worked for several newspapers in the New England area. In addition to writing for her college newspaper, McCall has enjoyed stints at The Boston Globe, The Bay City Banner, and The Newport Daily News.
It was through her work as a journalist – a chance interview while covering a local event in Rhode Island – that sparked McCall’s transition to volunteering and community service.
She served one year in AmeriCorps before moving to Kyrgyzstan for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Her time with AmeriCorps was spent as a Community Outreach Coordinator with Cradles to Crayons, an organization that supplies low-income and homeless children with everyday essentials – clothes, shoes, backpacks, school supplies, and toys.
“I once had the opportunity to go with one of the social workers to deliver these packages, and it was the best feeling in the world,” McCall said. “We went into some of the lower income neighborhoods in Boston. I remember this one house, the girl was like 3 or 4, and I rang the doorbell and she came running to the door. She tore it open and she had this huge smile on her face. Mom and dad were in the doorway and the mom was crying and just mouthed the words ‘Thank you’. It was a beautiful moment.”
In Kyrgyzstan, McCall lived with a host family while working for a women’s crisis center. The experience was complete with cultural and language lessons that included having to learn a Cyrillic alphabet.
“That was probably the most challenging experience, professionally and personally,” McCall said of her time in Kyrgyzstan.
Upon her return to the United States, McCall took a job as a grant writer at Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago, located in a low-income neighborhood serving primarily African American and Latino communities. She worked there for two years before enrolling at the Clinton School in August 2017.
“One thing my journalism professors always told us was that it’s not always a straight path, and mine definitely hasn’t been. But that’s part of the fun.”
When did you become interested in journalism?
Probably from the time I was 10 years old. I’ve always loved to write and tell stories. In high school I took journalism classes and was on the high school newspaper and the yearbook. It was a pretty easy decision when it came time to look at colleges. I knew I wanted to study journalism.
I looked at schools all across the United States and chose Boston University. They have a good reputation for journalism. It’s always been a passion of mine, writing and telling other peoples’ stories and getting to know people that are different than myself and putting their stories into words.
Were you immediately on the journalism track at Boston University?
I applied to BU’s College of Communication as a freshman. Within the first few classes I knew it was for me. I did the college newspaper, and I had some good internships my junior and senior years. I also had some mentors along the way that helped direct me toward what I was going to do afterward.
What are some of the newspapers you worked for?
The Bay State Banner occurred first. That was my junior year of college. That is the African American newspaper in Boston. I interned there for two years as a reporter and copy editor. Even though I was still in college, the editor there threw me into it. In journalism, that’s how you learn. You can learn so much in the classroom, but until you get out there and start to interview people and learn the landscape, it’s all theory. I’m so grateful to him for throwing me out into the pool and letting me swim.
I did that for two years, and then The Boston Globe sports department was my senior year of college. That was amazing. All the sports teams in Boston were winning. I lived in Kenmore Square, right across the street from Fenway, so you could open the window and faintly hear the announcer.
Being a member of the sports department when all the Boston teams were winning was so exciting. We would do the typical intern tasks – answer phones, take down scores for the football games on Friday nights. I also wrote Red Sox and Bruins game previews. I covered the state championship series for gymnastics. I was a competitive gymnast my whole life, so it was a natural fit.
I learned so much by listening and observing and sometimes having one-on-one conversations. I was so grateful for that experience every single day I walked in the doors.
The Newport Daily News is in Newport, Rhode Island. I moved there after graduation and I was a general assignment reporter. I had really good colleagues. I was probably the youngest reporter there by 20-some years.
What sparked your interest in AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps?
In Newport, I had an opportunity to interview a man from Kenya. He was in town for a community meeting, traveling around the United States with Catholic Relief Services. His story was inspiring and unlike any other I’d written so far.
Basically, his story was that at the age of 23, he was left to care for 15 siblings and cousins because all of the adults in their family had died of AIDS. He was on the track to do very well for himself in Kenya. He gave that all up at the time to care for these siblings and cousins – to make sure they were clothed, fed, educated. This man just had these beautiful brown eyes – lots of people have brown eyes, but I just felt like there was so much soul in there – and I’d never heard a story like his before. It touched me in a place that I hadn’t felt.
After his presentation, I had a chance to talk with him one on one, and one of the questions I asked was, “What can people in America or even right here in Newport do to help families in villages like yours in Kenya?” He looked at me and said, “Christine, you’re doing it right now. You’ve come and you’ve heard my story, and tonight you’re going to write my story, and then tomorrow this entire community is going to know mine and my family’s story.” No one had ever said anything like that to me before, or put journalism in that perspective.
Almost 10 years later, I look back on that and see that he was telling me, in a way, that journalism is a public service. I never thought of it in that context before.
After I turned in my story to the editor, I just started searching for volunteer opportunities and service opportunities. AmeriCorps came up. Peace Corps showed up. Even the Clinton School showed up somewhere in my search that night.
I still love journalism very much, but that man put it in a new light. I thought, “There’s something more. What else can I do?” People talk about following their heart or passion or intuition, and I did that.
How would you describe your time at the Clinton School?
I love it. It’s everything and probably more than what I expected. One of the first things that really drew me here were the three projects – Practicum, IPSP, and Capstone. We are in the middle of Practicum right now and I am on a team working with the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas. That’s been a really great experience. My team members and I worked on research the first semester and have been tasked with making a toolkit for businesses in Arkansas to evaluate gender equity in the workplace. This semester, we’ll be doing focus groups, interviews, and surveys that will aid in creating that toolkit.
I really love the Speaker Series here; that was one of the main attractions as well. I’ve met some really wonderful people that I’ve kept in touch with afterwards. The professors have been really helpful in providing a space to talk about career opportunities.
I’m really excited for the second semester and the social entrepreneurship class with Terry Mazany. He is the former CEO of The Chicago Community Trust. I’m really looking forward to his class this semester and more Speaker Series and figuring out IPSP. I have classmates from all over the country and a few international. I feel like I learn something new from them every day. We are all each other’s teachers.
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