My first...

...very first reporting assignment. Aw.

Fresh face for CU journalism students

Most classes don’t begin with the students grilling the professor or posing personal questions like her age or where she lives. But unlike most classes, that is precisely what happened to a University of Colorado professor on one late August afternoon.

Maria Cote, the newly appointed Public Affairs Reporting instructor to 20 young, eager journalism students at the University of Colorado at Boulder, boldly began her first class with a barrage of questions posed by her reporters-in-the-making.

And what was the result?

A light-hearted, and yet instructive experience for both professor and pupil alike.

Cote, or Maria to her students, let them take the reign on the interviewing exercise, revealing both a trust in their abilities to question while also encouraging involvement and self-motivation.

“You can be a really lazy writer,” she said to the class, and yet her impressive list of work in print lends to the belief she is anything but.

Along with working for the Daily Camera for four years, Cote’s areas of both reporting and editing have also included music, food, fashion (“Though not very well,” she confesses), fitness, health, and her most recent work, home and garden. Current projects include being a special projects coordinator, with a newsletter at Colorado State University. However, even a commodity as valuable as information isn’t safe from hard economic times. The recent failure of many newspapers was not lost on Cote, nor was she unaffected. Cote’s seven year stint as ‘Lifestyles’ editor for the Rocky Mountain News came to end when the paper published its final edition this February and thus ended its 150 years of publication. This was quite a disappointment since the Rocky was beloved by so many, as Cote’s stories brought up throughout the day would reveal. For instance, when she’d first gotten the interview for the Rocky position, Cote related how in her immense excitement, she’d unknowingly imbibed an entire bottle of wine. But upon seriously discussing the future of newspapers, she recalls, “I regret the struggles that newspapers are going through and I deeply regret losing my job, but after doing something for 20 years...I got a little worn out on managing people.” And with this attitude, she has embarked on her newest adventure: teaching.

Though an experienced scholar herself, (Cote graduated third in her class at Ankara High School in Ankara, Turkey and received a bachelor’s degree in english-psychology with a minor in Biology), she fits in better with a bunch of teenagers than an editing room full of middle-aged writers.

“I’m really am about 18, 19 years old,” she jokes. Her easy-going attitude and tendency to swear (“I’m a journalist; it’s habit”) allow her to blend in perfectly with her young crowd. This is an ability commonly lost on professionals unfortunately, and particularly those in education. Yet Cote is not afraid to use this close relationship to depart some well-earned wisdom on her students, including the importance of integrity, accuracy, and compassion.

“You work with people and you have to make sure the job gets done, but you have to have compassion. You have to make sure their family life comes first.” Although it seems obvious, this attitude can sometimes be hard to find in the world of journalism, and that includes its classrooms. However, Cote’s way of answering straight questions with amusing anecdotes or emotional detail bring to her story these mentioned values as well as a memorable story.

A mother of three, a wife to one, a journalist for two decades, and now a teacher to 20. What other roles does the future hold for Maria Cote?

To the C.U. students that will have the opportunity to partake in her reporting class this fall, it will hopefully be both a mentor and a friend. Until then, one can find her running, digging, and, when the occasion calls for it, drinking red wine.