The Daily Star welcomed a new reporter to the newsroom Tuesday, July 29.
Ella Connors, 21, grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, and moved to Montgomery County two years ago. In the spring, she graduated from Binghamton University with a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing, having completed college in three years.
She wrote for her high school newspaper at Ramapo High School, Rampage, for three years and was a news editor. She said she decided to join Binghamton University’s Pipe Dream newspaper to see if she was still interested in becoming a journalist. She was the assistant news editor her sophomore year and news editor her senior year.
Writers for Pipe Dream covered more than what was happening on campus, she said, and recounted a hearing in Binghamton she covered as a sophomore of a woman who was resentenced after a domestic dispute.
“It was my first time in a courthouse,” she said. The woman had been convicted of murdering her partner during a domestic dispute and had served 10 years. The laws had changed, and she was resentenced and released that day.
In addition to writing for her school and college newspapers, Conners spent the past two summers interning at different newspapers. Last summer, she interned for the Wallkill Valley Times, Southern Ulster Times and Mid Hudson Times, which are owned by Times Community Newspapers headquartered in Newburgh, and this summer she secured an internship at Strauss News in Chester through the SUNY Institute for Local News.
While working at the Newburgh-based papers last summer, Connors said she interviewed a 98-year-old World War II veteran and “received a lot of nice feedback. He was really interesting to speak to.”
Conners said she was given three stories a week to write for the Times Community Newspapers and filed them remotely.
She said the newsroom setting at The Daily Star is preferable to working remotely because it allows her to get more feedback and training from Editor Robert Cairns and Assistant Editor Lauren Takores.
“It is the first job where I have felt supported,” Connors said. “I am constantly learning and this will allow me to observe while growing as a journalist.”
Working at an office also lets her separate her work life from her personal life. “It allows me to leave and do other things,” she said.
Connors said she sees her work at The Daily Star as a challenge to grow as a writer. As a general assignment reporter, Connors will cover the city of Oneonta and greater Otsego County, producing general assignment reporting and feature stories as well as photos.
“Ella has good instincts and has jumped right into the job,” Cairns said. “She is already making a difference.”