Andrew Jenner \u201900 is EMS\u2019s 2020 Community Engagement Award recipient. Jenner has connected with local and international readers for more than 15 years on everything from city council to obscure science-y things, always committed to truth telling.<\/p>\n
As co-founder of the free,\u00a0online independent news source, The Citizen (hburgcitizen.com), Jenner\u2019s journalistic endeavors currently serve Shenandoah Valley readers, even as he works full time in the solar industry.<\/p>\n
Jenner\u2019s 2018 transition from freelance journalism to a 9-5 job was \u201ca little bit like I finally got called up to the big leagues,\u201d\u00a0he says. \u201cI got a few hits and
\nnow am on to something else.\u201d His journalistic \u201chits\u201d include publication with The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n
While freelance journalism brought Jenner the satisfaction of being published in respected outlets, he learned that \u201cforces\u00a0completely beyond my control were making what once had been a way to earn a decent living no longer tenable… That\u2019s how I wound up in the solar industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
This new professional chapter now has him pursuing his journalistic passions on evenings and weekends.<\/p>\n
The Citizen\u2019s content is \u201cpretty basic stuff,\u201d Jenner wrote in the August 2, 2020, weekly email \u201cround up\u201d of coverage. \u201c… 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
Andrew \u201cnever would have guessed\u201d he\u2019d end up in the Valley and counts himself lucky to have lived in Kenya from ages 6-13 with his parents. \u201cI have a bunch of fond memories of what seemed\u00a0to 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
\nbegan a position with the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding 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
\nErnie Martin and John Leonard encouraging him in his writing.<\/p>\n
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 that helped me realize how well-written content can have a real impact on people.\u201d<\/p>\n
After college and a year in Germany, Jenner worked for Valley newspapers while completing an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Goucher College, Towson, Md.<\/p>\n