Beat change
A quick update: My beat has changed from education to an all-encompassing government and politics beat. You can follow me on Twitter at Gov_SVH. I had recently hit 400 followers on my former Twitter account, Schools_SVH, and that Twitter address was printed on my business cards a few weeks ago. Curses! I am going to miss the education beat a lot, but I really enjoyed covering politics when I was in Colorado.
I have a few loose education stories to wrap up before I start government full time, but when I do, I will cover Skagit County and the cities of Burlington, Mount Vernon and Sedro-Woolley (with smaller cities as needed). Social services is also part of my beat. I’ve probably forgotten something in there — it is a really large beat.
The Education Writers Association was invaluable in my growth as an education reporter. In February I attended a statistics bootcamp, which taught me how to effectively use Access and Excel (I had used Excel for years but the training was a whole new level). Those skills are transferable to any beat.