Life After Lamplighter: Alumni Stories

PLD Lamplighter has been an institution at Dunbar since 1990. The skills students learn in this media program have helped them launch careers in multiple fields. Here's a look at some of our alumni.

Amanda Zimmer

Olivia Turner, Business Manager

Amanda Zimmer, a former Editor-in-Chief of Lamplighter, graduated from American University and now works for NBC Sports as a production coordinator and booker. She was on staff for two years, and she saw it as a positive experience. “I still use many skills I learned through the program in my job every day.” When Zimmer was on staff, Lamplighter still produced a print newspaper. She said that sh...

Amanda Hancock

Brooke Abell, Staff Reporter

Amanda Hancock was a former student at Paul Laurence Dunbar and Editor-in-Chief of PLD Lamplighter. Hancock graduated from Miami University in 2015. After graduating, she interned at Colorado Springs Gazette and received a job at Southern Illinoisan as a reporter. She is now a feature reporter with Quad-City Times, a daily newspaper based in Davenport, Iowa where she covers food, arts and entertai...

Arya Shoa

Katherine Lin and Sharon Chen

Arya Shoa is a former business manager at PLD Lamplighter who is currently studying business at the University of Kentucky. As a freshman at UK, he is very active on campus. He works at the Kentucky Kernel as an advertising consultant. Although he was only on Lamplighter staff for a year, he said his experience was impactful. “Lamplighter honestly got me to where I am now at Kentuck...

Jack Fitzpatrick

Cristina Thorson, Broadcast Editor

Dunbar and Lamplighter alumni Jack Fitzpatrick is currently located in Washington, D.C. working as a political and policy journalist for Bloomberg Government. He has written for USA Today, NBCNews.com, Slate, and The Arizona Republic, as well as other publications. “I did an internship at Arizona Capitol Times...once I did that and started writing about politics, I kind of got hooked on it and th...

Maggie Davis

Olivia Doyle , Staff Reporter

After graduating in 2016, Maggie Davis said she questioned what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. She entered the University of Kentucky as a Biology major on the premedical studies track, and she pursued that for a year. But, she said, there was always a passion for journalism. It all began when she was a high school junior--her first year on the Lamplighter staff. She worked as a staf...