Deborah Balthazar ’17 – Science journalist values combination of undergraduate liberal arts and STEM courses
When Deborah Balthazar ‘17 was an undergraduate biology major at Caldwell University, her science cell biology class was writing intensive. At first she was nervous because she already had a strong writing course. “But that helped me hone in on what was the beginning of my science writing style—informative and engaging,” said Balthazar, a science journalist and graduate of New York University’s master’s degree program in science journalism in the science, health and environmental reporting program.
Her exposure to writing courses at Caldwell led her to add an English minor because she thought it was fun and a great way to take a break. “Of course my classmates thought I was crazy, voluntarily wanting to write more papers…I am grateful for having had a liberal arts foundation along with my science courses,” said Balthazar, who also earned a minor in chemistry at Caldwell.
The seeds of interest in science journalism began to grow for Balthazar when her Caldwell biology professor Agnes Berki, Ph.D., and other faculty members commented on her writing talents and encouraged her to look into research, science writing or journalism. That they noticed her gift is a testament to Caldwell and how professors “want to get to know you as a person” and lead students where they can thrive, said Balthazar.
She recalled how she wrote about DNA and was asked to present on the subject during the University’s Founder’s Day. The experience got her thinking more about combining science and communications. “If I could explain the structure and the importance of the discovery of the double helix on paper, then it was even better to talk about in a way that a literal general audience would understand.”
In between her sophomore and junior summers, Balthazar was accepted into the prestigious Diversity Summer Internship Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health under a partnership set up years ago by Caldwell alumna Dr. Barbara Detrick ’65, a longtime professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Balthazar was doing environmental-related research, and the program director at Johns Hopkins noticed her writing and encouraged her to read “The Best Science and Nature Writing.” That started Balthazar thinking – “if more than one person is telling me about this, maybe I should … look into this as a path.”
After graduating from Caldwell, Balthazar covered town council and school board meetings for TAPintoWest Orange, a local news outlet. Then she decided to pursue her master’s at NYU, where her professors were accomplished science journalists with experience at outlets like The New York Times, The Atlantic and The Washington Post and had produced documentaries, television and radio reports and podcasts. Her professors told her “this is the hardest that you are ever going to work.” And the work certainly was intense. Along with their studies, students wrote for NYU’s publication Scienceline. Her bylines included the articles “Today’s gamers may be tomorrow’s agricultural experts” and “Mycorrhizal music: Why fungal violins can fool the experts,” looking at how a contemporary violin treated with fungus can mimic the sounds of a beautiful 18th-century Stradivarius.
Since graduating from NYU, Balthazar has had bylines for Science News articles including “Rats can bop their heads to the beat,” looking at research on how brains may have evolved to perceive rhythm, and “A new book asks: What makes humans call some animals pests?” on why some people vilify certain species.
She is excited for her future and hopes to earn bylines for science publications focused on children and adolescents and to produce and host science podcasts.
“Writing is hard,” said Balthazar, something she always told fellow students when she helped them edit their papers in Caldwell’s Writing Center. “But if you do it enough times, if you keep practicing, writing doesn’t feel so much like a chore but a way of expressing yourself.” Of course she still gets the oh-so-normal “writer’s block,” and as a freelance journalist she has to work hard at getting her next jobs and opportunities, but she is happy she received Caldwell’s rigorous liberal arts training. “I think it helped keep me as cool as a cucumber while I was at NYU and even when I worked as an intern at Science News Magazine and Scholastic Magazines.”