By Colleen Fitzpatrick

On a beautiful late-summer day, CQS Program Co-founder John C. Quinn treated a couple of Rhode Island-based Scholars to Sunday brunch.

Talia Buford (Summer 2004) and Nandini Jayakrishna (Summer 2008), along with CQS Career Coach Colleen Fitzpatrick, relaxed over dishes of eggs, pasta and lobster at the Shelter Harbor Inn in Westerly, R.I.

John C. Quinn and CQS Scholars Talia Buford (left) and Nandini Jayakrishna gather in “Chips’ Corner” at Quinn’s Carolina, R.I., mill property.

In a departure for the hard-driving newsman, there was no agenda and no speaker. There was, of course, some shop talk.

Quinn wanted to know why journalism still has a hold on the Scholars, despite the challenges presented by the recession and by fundamental changes in the media landscape.

“I’m still a journalist because, honestly, I never wanted to do anything else,” Talia said. “I knew coming into this profession that things weren’t always going to be carefree. Though I never imagined the industry would be in the state it is today, I think beginning my career with the realization that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life — either as a writer or as a journalism educator — prepared me to weather the storm we’re in now.”

Talia completed her CQS internship at the Press & Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., and now is a reporter with The Providence (R.I.) Journal, covering state courts and the town of North Smithfield.

“It’s tough sometimes,” she conceded. “And I worry about my job prospects in the future, but I try to enjoy the profession I fell in love with as a child. When things get hectic in
the newsroom, I can find a respite in a quirky feature story or immerse myself in a trial. I think that’s one of the blessings of this job — we have the freedom to make our work as enjoyable as we can stand it.”

Like Talia, Nandini has wanted “to write, as a journalist specifically, for as long as I can remember,” she said.

Her CQS internship paper was The Providence Journal. An intern at The Boston Globe last summer, Nandini now is in her senior year at Brown University and is a deputy managing editor of The Brown Daily Herald.

“I realize that the industry is going through very difficult times, but I also think that if I’m persistent enough, I’ll continue to find opportunities to write and tell unique stories,” Nandini said. “I appreciate the value of new media but there’s only so much a minute-long sound byte or video clip can convey. People are not going to stop reading anytime soon.”

Statements worthy of a September afternoon toast.