Jessica Wolfrom had a pretty nice life in San Francisco. She loved her hometown, enjoyed her job as an executive assistant for a software company, and liked that her position enabled her to write, both on the job and as a freelancer.
But she kept dreaming of something more.
“I just got to a point where journalism felt more to me like a calling than a career,” she said. “I found myself thinking: I’m going to regret this for the rest of life if I don’t take a risk and really pour myself into this, because this is what I feel like I was always meant to do.”
So, in 2018, she and her husband packed up their things (and their German Shepherd) and moved across the country so Wolfrom could attend the Master’s in Journalism program at Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies.
“It was the best decision I ever made,” she said.
Wolfrom says she is “very impatient and always wants to be challenged” (two good qualities for a journalist). And at Georgetown she was definitely challenged, particularly in her newswriting and reporting class, which required her to make cold calls and scour a neighborhood for the kind of “micro-stories” others might miss.
In October 2019 Wolfrom, who still works remotely for the software company, got another job as a Copy Aide for The Washington Post, where she helps the national desk with breaking news. She also writes bylined articles, either on her own or with senior staff, on major national stories.
“Being at the Post is an absolute dream come true,” Wolfrom said. “If you had told me five years ago that I would be working at The Washington Post, I don’t know if I would have believed you.”
