Robin Blackburn-Jerkins

120 S. Johnson St. Phone: 512-665-5877

San Marcos, TX 78666 (U.S.) E-mail: tweeked_cat@yahoo.com

 

Have Pen, Will Travel

Skills

¨ Writing news stories, feature stories, publicity materials, ad copy, reviews

¨ Leadership and team-building skills

¨ Generating story ideas, prioritizing, delegating tasks, setting and sticking to deadlines

¨ Good communication skills ¨ Bilingual English-Spanish (intermediate)

¨ Computer program knowledge includes: Quark Xpress, MS Word and Works, Aldus PageMaker, Adobe Photoshop, Netscape and MS Explorer

¨ Typing (90+ wpm) ¨ Proofreading and editing ¨ Organizing ¨ Researching

¨ Graphic design, page design and layout, pre-press work

Education

San Marcos High School (1990)

¨ Graduated and completed school’s honors program

¨ Scored in top 2 percent nationally on English portion of the ACT

St. Edward’s University (December 1995)

¨ B.A. in English writing, magna cum laude ¨ Completed University Honors Program

Work Experience

Assistant Managing Editor, Seguin Gazette-Enterprise

(11.2003-present)

¨ Delegating tasks to staff of 4-6 writers; keeping staff on task and motivated; writing news and feature stories and editorial columns; maintaining good relations with subscribers, advertisers and news sources; page layout, page design and occasionally graphic design; toning photos; staying updated on legal issues related to the profession; organizing information; proofreading and editing; typing

Graphic Artist, San Marcos Daily Record

(5/2002-11/2003)

¨ Building classified display ads for daily newspaper; following customers’ exact specifications at times and at other times using creativity to produce effective, eye-catching ads and spec ads; page layout; designing and writing copy for house ads and fillers; typing; toning photos.

Freelance Writer/Editor/Graphic Artist

(2/2002-present)

¨ Writing feature stories for Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, writing poetry and short fiction, copy editing colleagues’ manuscripts, producing flyers and publicity materials for a local band and for promotion of my own and a colleague’s literary endeavors

¨ Successfully promoted two poetry parties by writing press releases, designing ads, planning ad campaign and using media contacts to have feature articles written

Assistant Managing Editor, Seguin Gazette-Enterprise

(8/2001-2/2002)

¨ Delegating tasks to staff of 4-6 writers, writing news and feature stories; proofreading and editing; page layout with Quark; representing newspaper at community events

Contributing Editor, Suite101.com

(3/2000-10/2001)

¨ Writing one article per month on ranching and ranching-related Web sites; online research and several interviews conducted by e-mail; unpaid position

Features Editor, Seguin Gazette-Enterprise

(2/1999-8/2001)

¨ Generating ideas for and writing feature stories; design and layout of Sunday full-page features and pages for Tuesday-Friday editions; making and maintaining contacts with news sources; working to expand variety of feature stories; occasionally assigning stories to others; serving as proofreader/copy editor; covering 3 school districts, serving as entertainment editor and church news editor

Staff Writer, Seguin Gazette-Enterprise

(6/1998-2/1999)

¨ Generating story ideas; writing feature articles; taking photos; typing; proofreading; page layout; covering one school district, local history and arts, education, religion, crime reports; researching court records

¨ Skills developed include interviewing, public relations, photo scanning, graphics design, layout, research, time management, teamwork, prioritizing

Graphic Artist, San Marcos Daily Record

(3/1996-6/1998)

¨ Following exact specifications for building retail display ads for daily newspaper; color separation; sizing photographs; typing, proofreading; page layout; designing and writing copy for house ads and fillers, using creativity; organizing work area to streamline production

College Work

Senior Editor, ARETE (Vol. 5), St. Edward’s University

(4/1994-4/1995)

¨ Overseeing production of award-winning student academic journal

Writing Intern, St. Edward’s University News

(8/1994-12/1994)

¨ Serving as intern and assistant to editor of St. Edward University’s alumni newsletter

Intern, English Dept./Project Success, St. Edward’s University

(9/1993-12/1993)

¨ Assisting teacher in remedial freshman English class

Honors and Awards

¨ Received Texas APME honorable mention award for column writing, 2001

¨ Received award from Precious Life Crusade suicide prevention organization (Seguin, TX) for news articles and publicity related to its work (2000)

¨ Named to Texas Association of School Boards Media Honor Roll by Navarro Independent School District (Geronimo, TX) (2000)

¨ Named Honorary Citizen of Seguin (1998)

¨ Received St. Edward’s University Student Publications Award of Excellence (1994),

Certificate of Outstanding Service (1995) and Distinguished Service Award (1996)

¨ Senior thesis on ethics and accountability in journalism published in ARETE (Vol. 6)

¨ ARETE (Vol. 5) received First Place with Special Merit and Outstanding Academic Journal at American Scholastic Press Association Awards

References available upon request