Andrew Jenner \u201800 \u2014 Eastern Mennonite School\u2019s 2020 Community Engagement Award recipient \u2014 has connected with readers at local and international levels for more than 15 years on everything from city council meetings to obscure science-y things with commitment to truth telling behind every story. <\/p>\n
As co-founder of the free, online independent news source, The Citizen<\/em> (hburgcitizen.com<\/a>), Jenner\u2019s journalistic endeavors currently serve Shenandoah Valley readers, even as he works full time as manager of Paradise Energy Solutions\u2019<\/a> Virginia branch. <\/p>\n Jenner\u2019s 2018 transition from full-time freelance journalism to a more traditional 9-5 job was \u201ca little bit like I finally got called up to the big leagues,\u201d he says. \u201cI got a few hits and now am on to something else.\u201d His journalistic \u201chits\u201d include publication online and in print with an impressive list including: The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Chicago Tribune, Stuff.co.nz, Barrington Courier-Review, Slate, National Post, Atlas Obscura, Discover Magazine, Stars and Stripes, Modern Farmer, Americas Quarterly, Roads and Kingdoms, The Counter, DRAFT, Scalawag, Daily Voice<\/em> (South Africa), and Disorder Magazine<\/em>. In addition, he reported regularly for Harrisonburg\u2019s NPR affiliate, WMRA 90.7 FM<\/a>, for several years.<\/p>\n While his lengthy stint in freelance journalism brought Jenner the satisfaction of being published in respected outlets, he learned that \u201cforces completely beyond my control were making what once had been a way to earn a decent living no longer tenable\u2026 pretty soon thereafter I started looking for a real job \u2013 something that well into my mid-30s I never thought I\u2019d ever do again in my life. That\u2019s how I wound up in the solar industry.\u201d<\/p>\n A husband and father, Jenner says, \u201c\u2026 you can\u2019t make a living writing online pieces about birds,\u201d referring to \u201cWhere do songbirds go to die<\/a>?\u201d and \u201cThe factious, high-drama world of bird taxonomy<\/a>,\u201d both published online by The Atlantic<\/em>. This new professional chapter now has him pursuing his journalistic passions on evenings and weekends. <\/p>\n Journey to Journalism<\/strong> That issue provided in-depth coverage of local eviction numbers, racial disparity in housing charges, city council meetings, and one community group\u2019s effort to promote solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, all in the Shenandoah Valley.<\/p>\n \u201cI never would have guessed I\u2019d settle in the Valley,\u201d Andrew admits, noting that part of the reason he pursued full-time freelance journalism work was so he wouldn\u2019t be tied to one place by a career.<\/p>\n He counts himself lucky to have lived in Kenya from ages 6-13 with his parents \u2014 Hadley and Jan Jenner of Harrisonburg \u2014 and siblings. Working with Mennonite Central Committee<\/a>, his parents took him along to visit remote parts of the country. \u201cI have a bunch of fond memories of what seemed to me like big adventures through parts of the world that few people who don\u2019t live there ever see.\u201d<\/p>\n The experience \u201cprobably made me more comfortable than I would have been otherwise, being in situations where I\u2019m different than everyone else, or in being in unfamiliar places,\u201d he says. \u201cIt also gave me a perspective on material comforts that manifests itself nowadays in me lecturing my kids about how they have no idea how lucky they are.\u201d<\/p>\n The Jenner family returned from East Africa to the United States in 1996 and settled in Harrisonburg on Andrew\u2019s 14th birthday, where his mother began a position with the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a> at Eastern Mennonite University, and he began ninth grade at EMHS. <\/p>\n As a student in both high school and college, Jenner had no inkling that his future might include a career in journalism. He recalls high school English teachers Ernie Martin and John Leonard encouraging him in his writing. And as he grew older, he began to tap into his personal intrigue with a well-crafted piece. \u201cIn my senior year of college,\u201d he recalls \u201cI remember reading a piece in The Atlantic<\/em> that helped me realize how well-written content can have an real impact on people.\u201d<\/p>\n Two books on the Alaska wilderness had a similar impact on him during a summer stint working in a fish cannery in the state. A semester in the Middle East through the cross-cultural program at Eastern Mennonite University \u2014 where he earned a bachelor\u2019s degree with a double major in Justice, Peace and Conflict Studies and Environmental Science \u2014 was another formative experience. And a year in Germany with the InterMenno exchange program following college, provided ample time for \u201ca ton of reading,\u201d where he discovered one of his favorite authors, Welsh historian, author, and travel writer Jan Morris. <\/p>\n After the year in Germany, he worked for the The Page News and Courier<\/a> y The Daily News-Record<\/a> while completing an MFA in creative nonfiction writing through a low-residency program from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland.<\/p>\n In that era, people got their news from a newspaper, television, or the radio. Today\u2019s \u201cnews source\u201d for many is social media, a platform that Jenner both eschews and reluctantly embraces at times. The Citizen<\/em> enterprise \u201dwouldn\u2019t survive\u201d without Facebook, he admits. \u201cIt\u2019s the way 99% of our readership finds our content.\u201d <\/p>\n But that doesn\u2019t make up for the parts he deplores. \u201cI feel very strongly that Facebook has made it easy to spread misinformation,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople post with no reliable sources and they muddy the waters of what is reliable news.\u201d<\/p>\n Misinformation isn\u2019t his only contention with the platform. \u201cFacebook is cruel,\u201d he contends. \u201cIt allows people to treat each other badly and not pay the price of seeing the pain in peoples\u2019 eyes. There\u2019s no cost, so it\u2019s \u2018let\u2019s all be mean to each other.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Advice for media consumers<\/strong> Know those reliable sources and \u201ctrust that they\u2019re making honest efforts to live up to the ideals of fairness and truth that we expect of news sources. That doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t make mistakes, that everything in them is true or that they don\u2019t always portray things in accurate light. But they\u2019re trying.\u201d<\/p>\n His additional insights: Andrew is married to Rachel, a special education teacher at Massanutten Technical Center, and dad to Alex and Addy. The family is part of Shalom Mennonite Congregation.<\/p>\n The EMS Community Engagement Award is one of two to three opportunities for the school to celebrate and recognize alumni achievements each fall. Typically, awards are presented and alumni share their life experiences with students, faculty, staff and other alumni over Homecoming Weekend, the third weekend of October. Due to COVID-19, EMS\u2019s Homecoming 2020<\/a> activities are significantly scaled back this fall.<\/p>\n Andrew will speak in chapel for grades 6-12, however, on Friday, Oct. 16 at 9:55 a.m.<\/strong> Chapel gatherings will be held in student classrooms this year via livestream and pre-recorded video. Andrew\u2019s presentation will be available on the school\u2019s Chapel channel on YouTube<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Andrew Jenner \u201800 \u2014 Eastern Mennonite School\u2019s 2020 Community Engagement Award recipient \u2014 has connected with readers at local and international levels for more than 15 years on everything from city council meetings to obscure science-y things with commitment to truth telling behind every story. As co-founder of the free, online independent news source, The\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[320],"class_list":["post-29790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-homecoming"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29790"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Citizen\u2019s<\/a> <\/em>content is \u201cpretty basic stuff,\u201d Jenner wrote in the August 2, 2020, weekly email \u201cround up\u201d of coverage. \u201c\u2026 and more often than not, that\u2019s the whole point \u2013 little daily FYIs concerning things that might affect you or your neighbors in this little place we\u2019re lucky to call home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWhat would you tell high school students today about how they get their news? \u201cLearn the media landscape and what the established, reputable news sources are,\u201d Jenner says.<\/p>\n
\n\u2013 If you see something hard to believe that\u2019s shared on social media from a source you\u2019ve never heard of, ignore it. Or at very least, try to find the same news published on other news sites. If you can\u2019t find it elsewhere, ignore it.
\n\u2013 Read The Atlantic<\/em> and read commentators whose perspectives you disagree with.
\n\u2013 Please don\u2019t go along with this alarming trend where people are going ballistic and canceling subscriptions every time they read an editorial they disagree with.
\n\u2013 Please subscribe to one local media source and one national\/international one (and see above when your notions of right and wrong are challenged).<\/p>\n