Meet: Nazeefa Ahmed

·17 min·1 clip

Nazifa Ahmed says science writing is "very journalistic" because it starts with a hypothesis and ends with publication.

1. 15 Minute Story features Olivia interviewing Nazifa Ahmed at Craig Newmark campus, where Nazifa is a first-semester student planning "business and data concentrations." 2. Olivia frames Nazifa as someone whose science background and student newspaper work explain why she matters to journalism school. 3. Nazifa’s core claim is that science reporting and journalism share a "hypothesis," evidence gathering, and publication process. 4. She says biology and math writing once went only to "researchers or my lab supervisor," while student newspaper stories were read by people and "about people." 5. She describes a campus-pool investigation involving an older swimmer who had used the pool for "55 years" and came forward with a problem. 6. Nazifa says she visited the pool, "putting the mic into the water," talked to supervisors and pool staff, and then reached the university for comment. 7. That reporting led the university to send out a survey, which she treats as evidence that a story can create action. 8. She also links journalism life to hiking, saying the Billy Goat Trail was hard because it combined moving away from home with a physical climb. 9. Her D.C. reporting gave her access to scientists losing grants and to the National Science Foundation's annual talk, which she says broadened her sense of the field. 10. Listeners who like campus stories, reporting craft, and student voices.

As heard by us

A campus interview linking science, storytelling, and the pull of staying unplugged.

Olivia frames a first-semester student profile around a simple but sturdy idea: journalism can sit at the intersection of science, storytelling, and everyday campus life.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a student story that starts in biology and lands in a cabin.

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