“Always look for the extraordinary everywhere you go,” said Klein Alumna Tatyana Turner, KLN’ 17 (she/her). From the Bronx, to Philadelphia, to Baltimore, to Chicago; Turner has certainly followed her own advice.

Though her degree from Temple University is in communication studies, Turner later went on to get her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. “I had an interest in journalism so what I liked about what I studied was I felt like communications gave you that flexibility to be the jack of all trades,” she said.  

After graduating from Columbia in May 2020, Turner moved to Baltimore after being selected as a fellow for Report for America. The program’s goal is to revitalize newspapers that need help with coverage either in general or in a specific population, and Turner started covering Black life and culture at The Baltimore Sun in June 2020.

In Baltimore, Turner realized that she could cover important stories while also bridging the gap between newspapers and the communities they serve.

“She’s very much involved with the communities that she’s covering,” said Turner’s friend and Communications and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Coordinator in the Office of the Provost Nicole Graves, KLN ’18 ’21 (she/her). Graves noted that Turner doesn’t just do interviews, but in order to understand who she is speaking with, she explores the community and figures out what impact her story will have.

Turner took her skills learned in Baltimore and moved them to Chicago in June 2021. As a general assignment reporter at The Chicago Tribune, she gets to cover a wide variety of topics. She says her interviewing skills are being put to use as she learns to balance lighter stories with heavier ones.

“There’s a lot of vulnerable situations that you might be tapped to cover and just knowing how to look beyond a story and put humanity first, I think that’s what this experience has been teaching me so far,” Turner said.

Director of Communication Studies Scott Gratson (he/him) had the privilege of seeing first-hand the novel way Turner approaches community investigations when she took CSI 4212, 4213 and 4289: Communication and Media in New York City with him. Turner, a proud Bronx native, enjoyed that the course allowed her to look at her home in a more nuanced way. Gratson said that her Bronx pride was evident throughout her study and that her personality lent itself to a more inclusive and progressive investigation.

“She is much more comfortable in listening and not trying to be center stage,” Gratson said. This trait, however, should not lead to people thinking that Turner isn’t a force to be reckoned with, he said.

Turner’s Bronx pride landed her back in her hometown after graduating from Temple. After interning for Norwood News in the North Bronx, she moved into broadcast and interned with BronxNet. There, Turner produced an independent show all about the Bronx where she interviewed everyone from store owners to politicians.

Though Turner doubts that she had many viewers, she is grateful that she was able to learn so many skills from the experience. “I’m going to continue to do what I do and if nobody watches it, at least I’ll still learn something from the experience,” Turner said.

“I think her level of commitment and her dedication to the craft is very inspiring and I think she has a lot of possibilities ahead of her,” Graves said. “She’s making sure that the people she’s covering feel heard.”

Turner has learned to always put herself out there and explore the extraordinary, and no matter where she goes next, she is determined to keep doing what she is passionate about. “Always be doing something that makes you happy,” she said.