As a University of Nebraska student, Emily Ingram was one of just five students nationally to win an ACES scholarship in early 2010.
Just a few months later, she was hired as an overnight producer at The Washington Post. She’s come a long way from Franklin, Neb., a town of about 1,100 people where Ingram grew up on a farm not far from the Kansas border. It’s a one-stoplight town, she said, if you count the light that only flashes red or yellow depending on the direction you’re driving.
Moving to D.C. has been a cultural shift. “It is strange being in a city where so much of the town is — in one way or another — government-related,” she says. “Look left and you see an embassy; look right and there’s some sort of a federal agency.”
But the biggest change hasn’t been about adjusting to D.C. It’s been reorienting to post-college life. She credits her student involvement with ACES for helping her make the transition to the big leagues smoothly.
“My involvement with ACES has, of course, pushed me to improve my skills as an editor,” she said, “but more than anything, it helped me get to know professionals while I was still a student.”
