Jenn Carmona
Jenn Carmona discovered her love of writing in second grade. When her class progressed from basic sentence structure to paragraphs, she saw endless possibilities for stories. Her teacher, Mrs. Fanurakis, saw a budding fiction writer and encouraged Carmona to pursue literature. Carmona’s natural 
curiosity eventually drew her toward journalism.
Jennifer Michele Carmona was born in New York City in 1986 and grew up in the suburb of Peekskill. During her freshman year at Peekskill High School, Carmona met local television news anchors Joe Torres and Jennifer Jordan at a career fair. Talking with them compelled her to try reporting for the school newspaper and TV station. It was a direction, she says, that just stuck.
Carmona attended the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, majoring in journalism and Spanish. She began reporting for the features section of her campus newspaper, The Daily Orange, and later for Medley, a university magazine that covers international issues. She served as editor-in-chief of Medley in her last year at Syracuse.
As an undergraduate, Carmona interned for the editorial department at Latina magazine, where she published a feature story on opera singer Ana Maria Martinez. She also worked for an associate producer at MTV Tr3s Radio Network, MTV’s Spanish-language station. Before coming to Columbia University, she served as a contributing writer and editor for the Latin culture website, Remezcla.
Carmona is currently an M.S. candidate in Broadcast at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. In the future, she hopes to continue reporting, learning, and telling people’s stories.