Santa Clara University

Joe Tone

Journalism is often an exciting, rewarding profession, but it’s seldom glamorous. On a recent sunny morning in Stockton, California, Joe Tone learned that firsthand when he found himself driving around a neighborhood literally trolling for trash.

"There’s a garbage strike here and I’m trying to find people with a lot of trash piled up near their house," explains Tone, a 2001 graduate of the Communication Department and an education reporter at The Record, Stockton’s daily newspaper.

Tone has covered everything from double murders to pitched battles over funding for schools in an economic recession, but this is his first foray into the garbage beat. "You’re never quite sure what you might be covering," says the 25-year-old Tone. "That’s one of the things that attracted me to journalism."

At Santa Clara, Tone sharpened his skills as the editor of The Santa Clara student newspaper. He managed a staff of 25, monitored an $80,000 budget, and still found time to write. An in-depth story about a fellow SCU student battling cancer earned Tone third place in The Los Angeles Times story of the year competition in 2001. And The Santa Clara was a finalist in the college newspaper national Pacemaker Competition, distinguishing it as one of the top college papers in the country.

"The paper gave me the confidence that I could be a journalist," Tone says. "It really allowed me to stretch myself and take risks."

After Santa Clara, Tone went on to earn a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he was able to draw on the experience he gained in journalism courses in the Communication Department.

"The professors I had in my journalism courses are excited about journalism and they helped me understand the importance of the craft," Tone said. "That helped me succeed."