Maria Sacchetti Visits UMass

October 4. 2012

Reporters should be relentless yet polite, Boston Globe immigration reporter Maria Sacchetti counseled students on a recent visit to her alma mater, the University of Massachusetts.

"Do it graciously, it'll get you to where you want to be," Sacchetti, who graduated from UMass 20 years ago,  told Journalism 300 students during a visit to class. Sacchetti returned to campus to take part in an All Star Alumni panel sponsored by the Journalism Program on Wednesday.

Born and raised in Lawrence, Mass., Sacchetti studied economics and Spanish at UMass Amherst before going on to graduate school at the University of Texas. Though she said she feels well-educated, Sacchetti said that she feels UMass fell second-rate to the University of Texas as far as facilities go and the number of books and journals available.

At first, Sacchetti was rejected from all of the graduate schools she applied to. “University of Texas said no, and as crazy as it sounds I appealed it. Never be afraid to do that,” Sacchetti said, “because I ended up getting wait-listed, and then they let me in. You just have to keep pushing past the barriers.”

In addition to putting in many hours at UMass’ Daily Collegian newspaper, Sacchetti worked with several interning programs, including some that she said she wasn’t very fond of. “Once you accept an internship, then you see if you like it. Writing is what gets you into it, but I love reporting. You have to do some things you don’t really want to do to get to where you want to be.”

Sacchetti was persistent in her hopes to become a journalist. She attended job fairs and recommended to students that, “you cannot miss the Unity Job Fair. If there is one job fair you don’t want to miss, this is it, even if you don’t want to go.” The Unity Job Fair is a yearly convention that allows both aspiring and established journalists to engage with one another and connect with the media.

While on attending a job fair in California, Sacchetti gave her information to one of the Boston Globe’s editors. She said, “I didn’t even want to be there, I wasn’t dressed in a suit…but I gave him my information and the next thing I knew, I was on a plane!” This is when Sacchetti returned to the East Coast to pursue a job at the Globe.

In 2010 Sacchetti was offered an opportunity to travel to Haiti and report on the earthquake.  Sacchetti was sent with an intern and a translator from the Boston Globe and said they were able to take very minimal. “We brought bread and peanut butter. You can survive on just that…so I’ve been told.”

When asked what her friends and parents thought about her traveling to report on the disaster in Haiti, Sacchetti said, “I think of them and that’s why I don’t take huge risks. My father would say, ‘you know, you don’t have to go, they aren’t making you.’ But it is about you, your priorities…it can be a very unpredictable career.”

Sacchetti said that her experience in Haiti was by far the most terrifying of all her travel reporting. “There were dead bodies lined on the streets. People thought those taking the bodies away were doing something suspicious, but it was really just a huge health risk.”

When asked for her advice for future journalists, Sacchetti said, “Don’t be afraid to mess up. I made mistakes while working at the Collegian but I learned from those mistakes. College is the time to do that.”

-Lindsay