{"id":12200,"date":"2023-08-21T15:51:31","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T19:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/?p=12200"},"modified":"2023-09-13T13:30:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T17:30:51","slug":"kate-leblanc-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/alumni-profile\/2023\/08\/21\/kate-leblanc-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate LeBlanc ’22"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kate LeBlanc ’22, journalism<\/a> and political science<\/a>, was the editor-in-chief of the Good Five Cent Cigar<\/a> during her time at the University of Rhode Island<\/a>. During her time in charge, LeBlanc pushed the paper to new heights. After graduating, she worked as a civic fellow at the Close Up Foundation<\/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic education organization. Now, she is a Media Relations and Content Specialist at Benchmark Strategies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did you choose to study at URI?<\/b><\/p>\n

I loved URI after my first visit. After coming to Accepted Students Day in the spring, I knew it would be the place for me. At this event, I had the opportunity to meet with professors in journalism and political science. I also met students who worked at the newspaper, the Good Five Cent Cigar. Those introductions and conversations were integral for me in making my choice; they confirmed URI would be a place where I could be successful and follow my passions. <\/span><\/p>\n

What made you choose to study journalism and political science?<\/b><\/p>\n

I grew up knowing I wanted to study journalism, and over time, I found another interest in politics and policy. From there, I brought these two passions together and studied them at URI. I’m glad I made the choice to get both degrees — each taught me so much, respectively, but they complemented each other well. <\/span><\/p>\n

How do you use the skills you learned while you were at URI today?<\/b><\/p>\n

I am constantly using the skills I learned from the Harrington School. I always say that studying journalism was the best decision I could’ve made. It teaches you how to act on curiosity, how to talk with anyone, and how to distill information and communicate for every audience. I am grateful knowing that this is a strength I have and can lean on throughout my career and everyday life. <\/span><\/p>\n

Describe your favorite memory from your time as a student.<\/b><\/p>\n

A highlight of my career at URI and my time in the Harrington School was the incredible opportunity to sit on a panel about media literacy and disinformation with some esteemed Rhode Island journalists and local leaders. <\/span><\/p>\n

We hosted a session during URI’s Media Literacy Conference in March 2022. I was able to answer questions from the audience about what the Good Five Cent Cigar, which I was editor-in-chief of in 2021, was doing to promote media literacy and eradicate misinformation. It was a great opportunity for me to highlight the critical work of student journalism, and it gave me a chance to meet some incredible people from the industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

What piece of advice would you give Harrington students who are preparing to enter the workforce?<\/b><\/p>\n

A piece of advice I’ve learned this year that I would tell to any Harrington student: Your first job doesn’t have to be your dream job. In fact, there’s some merit to taking a role, pursuing a fellowship, and doing something temporary that’s different, unexpected and largely out of your comfort zone. <\/span><\/p>\n

I took this past year to work on a campaign in my home state of Massachusetts and completed a fellowship in Washington, D.C., at the Close Up Foundation related to civic education. It was not exactly what I thought I would pursue after graduating, but it gave me an experience I may have never considered otherwise. Through my fellowship, I have been teaching and working with students, building a community in a new city, and trying new things.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m grateful for my experience; albeit out of my comfort zone at first, now I have new skills and have learned lessons I likely would not have if I had gone in a different direction. Being a recent graduate is often a transitional period in life, and there’s something to be said about embracing that. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI always say that studying journalism was the best decision I could’ve made. It teaches you how to act on curiosity, how to talk with anyone, and how to distill information and communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4952,"featured_media":12173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23,98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-profile","category-journalism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4952"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12200"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12520,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12200\/revisions\/12520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/harrington\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}