Joe Williams
Executive Director, Democrats for Education Reform (New York, NY)
My first failing grade as an undergrad came from my newswriting instructor, Bruce Gill. I misspelled Schroeder Hall in a news story. It was a rock-solid story (if I don’t say so) but I botched the spelling of the oh-so-important ‘where’ and now the ‘who,’ ‘what,’ ‘when’ and ‘how’ seemed irrelevant. Gill gave me an ‘F.’ It stunned me. But I learned an important lesson that stuck with me through stints at several newspapers: accuracy is at the core of a journalist’s credibility. The sense of social justice oozing throughout Marquette in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s continues to drive my work today as an advocate for better public education nationwide.
