New York Times recruits Baylor journalism major to write for website

As a journalism student at Baylor many years ago, I was excited when my work made the front page of the Lariat, or perhaps found its way into the football gameday program. Today, students get opportunities like never before. Take Krista Pirtle’s work for The New York Times, for example.

Late last semester, with Robert Griffin III on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy and the Baylor women’s basketball team ranked No. 1 in the country, the Times‘ sports editor contacted Pirtle to cover the Lady Bears and RG3 for The Quad, the paper’s college sports blog. Pirtle, a junior journalism major and sports writer for the Lariat, jumped at the opportunity and has now been published on the site five times in the last two months (here, here, here, here and here).

“I grew up sitting on my dad’s lap in front of the television watching games,” she recalls. “My junior year of high school I was talking to my basketball coach about college, and she introduced me to the idea of getting paid to watch sports.”

Pirtle, a native of Olney, Texas (about 100 miles northwest of Fort Worth), is not the only Bear to have found such success online. For instance, Jason King, BA ’97, is a national college basketball columnist for ESPN.com, and recent graduate Ashley Killough, BA ’09, covers politics for CNN’s “Political Ticker” blog.

“This is all the journalism experience I have; my high school was too small to have a newspaper,” says Pirtle. “I never imagined that I would be contributing to the Times while at Baylor. … I’ve learned that God truly has a better plan for my life than I ever will.”

Sic ’em, Krista and Baylor journalism!