Reporting Portfolio

Take a look through my most recent clips

Featured Articles

Explore a featured selection of my writing work below.

Rooted in History: Penn State’s Heritage Trees stand for more than just natural beauty | Town&Gown

Penn State's campus is regarded as one of the most beautiful in the country. (Photo by Grace Miller)

Penn State University is known for many things – athletics, academics, student life. But an unmistakable, yet often overlooked highlight of the campus is its landscape, including more than 17,000 trees.

Twenty-one of those trees currently hold a more specific title: Heritage Trees. To gain such status, a tree must meet one of three criteria regarding its historical, cultural, or aesthetic value

Popular Centre County light show moves locations to help businesses, build community

Since 2014, Eric Stoner has put on a light show at his Ferguson Township home, luring neighbors and community members to visit the attraction each holiday season. And each year, the popular light show raised money for a different charity.

But this year, with Stoner in the process of moving, he decided to take the lights in another direction: to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza in downtown State College, in conjunction with the Downtown State College Improvement District.

Now the new, walk-up event has a name: Light Up Downtown.

Read more here: https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/community/state-college/article247609840.html#storylink=cpy

A ‘21st-Century Department Store’: Belle Mercantile Makes Its Mark as a Marketplace for Artisans | State College, PA

This story appears in the May 2021 issue of Town&Gown.

Bellefonte is undergoing a revolution – or at least that’s what many of its small-business owners believe.

More specifically, Bellefonte seems to be enjoying the opening of many community-focused small businesses. One of these small businesses is Belle Mercantile, a collective marketplace described on its website as a “craft fair meets farmers market.”

The store at 135 S. Spring St. is owned by married couple Andrea Skirpan and Brian Bonn

Start of Trout-Fishing Season Highlights a Complex, Years-Long Process at Benner Spring and Other State Hatcheries | State College, PA

This story appears in the April 2021 issue of Town&Gown.

On Saturday, many anglers will ready their fishing rods for the start of Pennsylvania’s trout season – a season largely made possible through the work of state fish hatcheries.

State College’s Benner Spring Fish Hatchery Manager Doug Hess is hoping this trout season will offer a little bit of normalcy for anglers, despite the ongoing pandemic that posed challenges in scheduling events and hatchery operation last season.

“We just started