Aggie Journalism Graduate Falls in Love with Small-Town Reporting

When Melody Cook returned to Utah State University after a five-year break from school, she celebrated her return with a photograph of her holding a "first day of school" chalkboard — the sort that parents typically use to record their children's back-to-school days.

In the space at the top, the mother of three small children wrote in pink chalk that it was the first day of her junior year. Under that, she indicated that she was 27 years old. Finally, in the space that read "when I grow up, I want to be" she wrote: "a journalist."

Now she is. Cook, who lives in Missouri — and was one of the first students to earn a degree through the Department of Journalism and Communication's online program — is now a reporter covering local politics for The Odessan, a newspaper that serves the 32,000 people of Lafayette County, Missouri.

"The majority of Lafayette County is farmland," Cook said, "so the town populations are very small."

And the leaders of those towns aren't career politicians. "We have plumbers, teachers and car salesmen running the show — and I believe that's how it should be," she said. "It's as 'for the people, by the people' as it gets."

Cook has a designated seat at the Lafayette County Courthouse, where she covers every meeting of the county's commissioners — at a small, vintage school desk.

It may not be a glamorous job, but Cook believes it's an important one.

"Local politics doesn't get nearly as much attention as it should," she said. "The decisions made at the local level arguably have a far greater impact on our daily lives than those at the national level... Whether or not a road gets repaired, where town funds are allocated, how land can be used — all of these decisions can ultimately come down to the vote of three people in a tiny room."