At the Worcester Business Journal, I worked as a intern, reporting on business trends, higher education, real estate, and health care, organizing data and writing profiles. After concluding my internship in summer 2024, I have contributed to the journal as a semi-regular freelancer, including this first story below, profiling a searcher and examining the growing trend of search funds across businesses.
In-depth feature stories
Becoming a CEO: How the growing popularity of search funds led a former Central Mass. banker to expand his business into Shrewsbury
Sept. 8, 2025
In a freelanced profile feature, I interviewed successful search funder Shaun Stimpson who is expanding his businesses in the Central Massachusetts area. In addition to telling Stimpson’s story through a profile lens, I expanded on the growing popularity of search funds, interviewing two additional sources who have professional experience working with them. For long business features at the journal data is required so I sorted through databases and charts to complete the story.
Training the workforce: Central Mass. universities infuse AI into curricula as they navigate the ethical and technical issues
July 22, 2024
When I started my internship at WBJ, my editor asked me what I was most interested in. I have had always had a strong interest in higher education, since that was where the bulk of my previous work had been reporting at UConn. When he told me to find a story for their higher education issue in July, I pitched this story on the impacts of artificial intelligence on the next generation. For the story, I interviewed a few professors and a dean at three different schools in Central Massachusetts who all play a unique role in the development of AI into curriculum, as well as a technological leader on the state’s AI task force.
Time away from work: No longer limited to the higher ed industry, sabbaticals are becoming more common among business executives
Sept. 2, 2024
For the last in-depth story I wrote during my internship, I covered the growing trends of sabbaticals among business executives. Leading the story with a prominent Worcester businesswoman Stephanie Page who took a sabbatical, I examined the growing trend and spoke to a national expert on search funds. I also looked at other organizations in the state that have implemented sabbatical programs such as the Black Mass Coalition. A research heavy story, I drove this story with Page and her experiences for readers to better understand the trends.
Business News
Local nonprofit receives $200,000 donation for a new building to expand its services
June 19, 2024
I visited WHEAT Community Connections in Clinton when they announced funds to build a new building, expanding their services. Several business leaders and community partners attended the event and I spoke to them, turning around this story a few hours later.
Sara Bedigian 