Graduating from the University of Maryland
It’s one of those nights. The moon is far and small in a brisk December sky. I’m in bed, not sleeping, but […]
Author: Marlena Chertock
Marlena is a digital storyteller and poetry editor at District Lit. Her first poetry book, On that one-way trip to Mars, is available from Bottlecap Press.
Using parallax to discuss college athletic spending
Athletic Spending in ACC and Big Ten For my final CNS project, I wanted to learn parallax. Parallax is the difference between […]
Flowing to better designs
To help people decide which name to vote on for the Smithsonian National Zoological Park’s Giant Panda cub, I created a flowchart. The […]
Designing a wine tasting chart
For the past two weeks, I have been designing a wine tasting chart to go along with an article about the growing […]
Learning to build
Last week in Capital News Service I learned tabletop js and became “mustache champ,” which stands for my initials and the Mustache language. […]
Becoming a cartographer
I created this interactive map using TileMill to show locations of bird-friendly coffee farms. TileMill is an application you download to your […]
Charting Maryland casino revenue
I created two charts that track Maryland casino revenue, using Highcharts. The website offers demos that make it easy to learn and […]
The best feedback an intern could receive
Are you on the Takoma Park beat? Will you be writing all these stories?” I had no idea I was speaking to […]
OPINION: An intern’s response to the selling of The Washington Post
As an intern, I get to experience office life and newsrooms. I am in the thick of it — reporting on deadline, […]
Reporters and gifts
This past week at The Gazette I experienced a case of real-world journalism ethics in my reporting. This week I had a […]
Fourth week at USA TODAY
Last week was my last one at USA TODAY. Here’s a recap: Monday I wrote a tip list for the USA TODAY […]
Reporting reactions of DOMA and Proposition 8 at the Supreme Court
[View the story “Reporting reactions of DOMA and Proposition 8 at the Supreme Court” on Storify]
Third week at USA TODAY
Monday I met with the science writer, Dan Vergano, and we discussed his upcoming article about summer stargazing for USA TODAY Weekend. […]
Second week at USA TODAY
Has it been the second week at USA TODAY already? Monday Monday my editor went over my story ideas and helped me […]
First week at USA TODAY
I just wrapped up my first week at USA TODAY and it has been amazing. Here’s how my week went.
16 and license-less
In the U.S. the age of first-time drivers license receivers has risen from 16 to 19 By Marlena Chertock He’s a junior […]
My poems are published!
I’m now a published poet! Two of my poems were published in this year’s issue of Stylus and one won First Place in […]
Designing “a decade of scribblers”
This year I was hard at work as the Social Media Manager for the Writers’ House. One of my projects this semester […]
Wearing words for a week
A literary journal’s method of spreading stories, poems Marlena Chertock, Editor-in-Chief of The Writers’ Bloc Dylan Bargteil, a Writers’ House alumnus and now […]
Striving for recognition, asking not to be invisible
The story of an undocumented citizen By Marlena Chertock First published in The Writers’ Bloc. Jose Antonio Vargas, a journalist, came out […]