ABOUT ME

Hi, and thanks for visiting my site! I’m Meryl Kornfield, a Florida girl born and raised in Miami. I recently graduated with honors from the University of Florida. In college, I studied journalism and Latin American studies, and I spent most of my time in The Independent Florida Alligator’s newsroom, which is considered one of the best student newsrooms in the country. I reported and edited every beat at The Alligator before becoming editor-in-chief during my senior year. I covered some once-in-a-lifetime assignments: After the Parkland shooting, I embedded myself on a bus of Stoneman Douglas alumni traveling to Washington, D.C. for March for Our Lives. When Richard Spencer came to campus, I was the only Alligator reporter in the room. As editor-in-chief, I emphasized modernizing and expanding the digital reach of the newspaper by changing staff structure and the editing process to accommodate posting stories online during the day. I also implemented push notifications and started teams on staff that focus on relevant topics: podcasts, audience engagement, and digital projects.

Some of the exciting new changes I brought into the student newsroom were ideas I developed from the fast-paced digital newsrooms I interned at, including The South Florida Sun Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, and Gainesville Sun. At each of those papers, I reported on diverse topics, from breaking news and crime to in-depth looks into businesses and government. I also worked at the NPR-affiliated station in Gainesville, WUFT News, as a capitol correspondent, covering Florida 2019 legislative session from the Miami Herald-Tampa Bay Times bureau. While at WUFT News, I worked on a team that created a documentary TV series and web story on mental health after hurricanes. While the documentary series was an excellent opportunity to practice my video skills, I’ve stayed up to date on all sorts of multimedia forms, from news design to radio. Check out examples of my work and the rest of my resume on this site!