We are pleased to present a new series about how Columbia Journalism School has been training its students to become leading reporters on topics related to immigration and migration. Around the globe, the work of journalists is essential for telling the stories of how the movement of people across borders has been impacting lives, politics and economies. In this alumni spotlight, we talked with Catherine E. Shoichet, a 2009 graduate of the Master of Arts Program, Politics Concentration. Shoichet currently covers immigration as a senior writer for CNN Digital.
The Master of Arts Program, Politics Concentration trains students to think more deeply about social and political affairs. The program is designed to add to students’ toolbox of skills by showing them the way in which social scientists approach a range of social, political and economic problems. Unlike a program in international affairs or political science, the program is geared specifically to journalists and all writing is journalistic. The in-depth immersion in the latest scholarship on politics produces better political journalists — ones who are comfortable drawing on expert research to produce stories of greater depth and nuance.
Please read below to learn about how Columbia Journalism School changed Shoichet's career trajectory, and how her education in the Master of Arts Program has informed her reporting on immigration.
What do you do in your current job at CNN?
I’m a senior writer covering immigration for CNN Digital. In this role, I’ve flown to Guatemala on an ICE deportation flight, followed a family divided by the Trump administration’s travel ban and chronicled how fear ripples through communities on different sides of the debate. On any given day, I could be working with a team to cover breaking news, digging for details for an in-depth story or trying to help our audience understand the latest policy twists and turns.
How did you become interested in reporting on immigration?
I started to study Spanish during my senior year of college, and it really opened up a universe to me as I became increasingly aware of immigrant communities around me. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know, and it kind of snowballed from there. Immigration wasn’t a topic I had much of a chance to explore during my years as a newspaper reporter. But I came to Columbia with the goal of shifting my focus from local to international news. I knew one area I wanted to focus on was immigration. And at Columbia my interest in covering immigration only deepened; I loved how there were so many facets to it – human stories, economic stories, political stories, education stories. I think I wrote about immigration in some way during just about every J-School assignment. I quickly discovered what a complex and confusing topic it could be, but I loved learning and writing about it.
What kinds of qualities do you strive to bring to CNN's immigration coverage?
In the past few years, I’ve found myself tackling a lot of different kinds of immigration stories – from breaking news, to explainers, to deeper dives. No matter what I’m writing, I try to focus on the human impact of policies and politics – to give our audience a window in to the ways our world is changing, and to help readers understand what’s happening and why it matters.
What were you doing before coming to Columbia and what inspired you to apply to the M.A. Politics Concentration?
Before coming to Columbia, I was a reporter for about four years covering local government at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida (now known as the Tampa Bay Times). I’d been thinking about the M.A. program in the back of my mind for a few years, because I’d heard then-Dean Nicholas Lemann give a talk about it when I was in college and I had always been really drawn to the notion of being a journalist with some sort of subject expertise. When I applied, I had reached a point in my career when I really wanted to learn and grow and become a better reporter, but I was feeling a little stuck. It just seemed like the right time to develop new skills, build some expertise and try to redirect my career.
How do you think the education that you received in the M.A. program informs your reporting and writing today?
My experience in the M.A. program informs my work in so many ways. Much of what I learned about immigration that year still shapes the stories I’m writing today and the questions I ask. Working on my M.A. thesis at Columbia, I reported in Spanish for the first time, interviewing immigrants in New York and their families in Mexico. The fellowship that helped fund my year at Columbia – the Gordon and Maggie Gray Fellowship for International Reporting – also gave me money to travel to Mexico after graduation, sharpen my Spanish skills and work as an intern in the AP’s Mexico City bureau. Without that experience, I certainly wouldn’t be able to cover immigration with the same depth and expertise I bring to my job today.
How has the material that you covered in your three outside elective classes at Columbia helped you report on immigration issues?
All of the outside electives I took focused on immigration, and the lessons I learned in those classes were a strong foundation that I used to build my expertise. A course I took at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, “Immigrants and American Politics,” taught by the late Professor Rodolfo de la Garza, was very formative for me and introduced me to many issues that are still coming up. I remember reading a lot about the debate over assimilation, something I had a chance to draw on in a recent story. That class also got me thinking about remittances, the money immigrants send home. Exploring that topic ended up becoming the jumping off point for my M.A. thesis. And an amazing guest lecturer in that class, Milena Gomez, ended up becoming my outside adviser.
Professor Saskia Sassen’s “Immigration, Cities and States” course gave me a more global perspective on immigration. We read a lot of case studies and explored topics like the increased privatization of functions once performed by governments, such as the growth of private prisons. As I cover immigration today, that’s a topic that often comes up, and something I explored last year with an in-depth series about a privately run immigrant detention center.
What memories from your time at Columbia stand out today?
I’m so grateful for the chance Columbia gave me to push pause on my career for a little bit and really think about the kind of journalist I was and the kind of journalist I wanted to become. It’s been a decade since I graduated, but my experience at Columbia is still very vivid in my memory. It was a year when I grew so much and met so many great journalists who I’m still friends with today. The topics we discussed in the M.A. Politics Concentration seminar – such as social movements and failed states and civil religion – frequently pop back into my mind because they’re still so relevant today. I also remember how amazing it was to have this constant parade of guest speakers who were incredible journalists dropping by to speak in a class or on a panel in the evenings. I got a little glimpse of that again recently at my 10-year reunion, where there were a lot of really great panels organized by the school that inspired and energized me the same way so many events during my time at the J-School had.
Do you have advice for experienced journalists who might be interested in getting specialized training in the M.A. program?
I came to Columbia knowing I wanted to focus on immigration, and I had an amazing year delving into that topic in every way that I could – from class assignments to my thesis to outside electives to events I attended. Part of the thrill of being a journalist is that it’s a constant education, but there’s really nothing like being back in school, having some of the world’s leading experts in whatever topic you’re interested in so close by and also having time to work on sharpening your storytelling skills.
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