For someone who spends a lot of time interviewing others, professor Jason Kelly recoils at suddenly being the one questioned. “I like being on the other side of this,” he laughed.
Professor Kelly serves as editor of Notre Dame Magazine, which has covered the University and topics of importance to alumni since the magazine’s founding in 1972. It’s very full-circle work for the South Bend native and Notre Dame alum: “I’ve read the magazine since I was a kid,” he explained. “I really can sort of remember it sitting on my dad's desk … it’s cool to be able to contribute to it before I worked here, and then come back here to work.”
I had thumbed through the magazine’s latest issue, titled “The Intellectual Life of Alasdair MacIntyre,” while waiting outside Professor Kelly’s office that morning. From a think piece on Korean identity to a feature on a Chicago-based rock band named Ratboys, one can open to any page of the magazine and learn something new.
It's this form of constant discovery that Kelly loves about his line of work. “There's just a lot of interesting people and interesting issues out there that are sort of inexhaustible,” he says. While it may be impossible to become an expert on every topic he’s interested in, being a journalist gets him close. “I think I wouldn't have been good in any sort of like serious, deep academic research world where you're kind of going very deep into one thing. I like the kind of mile-wide, inch-deep version.”
As the head of the Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy (JED) on campus, Kelly hopes to give students the tools they need to learn about the world in this way, too. The program offers a minor for students interested in working in news, requiring coursework in the study of reporting and editing, as well as a professional news internship.
“[The program] is very intentionally a minor, you know, no aspirations to be a major,” the journalism professor explained. “It is meant to sort of fit into that larger picture of whatever education you’re getting here at Notre Dame, whatever discipline you’re interested in, and then get the skills in the journalism minor[so] that you can apply that knowledge and help people understand the world better.”
This kind of flexibility is the beauty of the JED minor. Serving as a supplement to students’ overall education, it allows for space to both figuratively – and literally – do the type of wandering inherent to journalism: pursuing the world’s curiosities and being open to follow where a story might take you.
It’s this type of free wandering that, unfortunately, many students often don’t allow in their schedules.
“I get that there often feels like there’s no time or no energy for this stuff, because you guys are so busy and so full of demands … [but] there's something to be said for kind of just getting lost in something or just getting lost and following your gut.”
As a business major, I’ve seen firsthand the careerism that stops Notre Dame students from letting themselves get lost. Claiming to need a practical major or recruiting for an internship just because everyone else is, results-oriented students often flock together, finding safety in numbers while cutting themselves off from exploring their own unique interests. Anything that doesn’t have immediate, external utility is viewed by many at the University as a waste of time.
When I ask what the journalism professor would tell these students given the chance, he – in true journalist fashion – flipped the question on me. “You're closer to the ground than I am,” he laughed. “So help me – what would you tell them?”
I told him about how much I’ve enjoyed writing for The Observer for the past three years, and how it has allowed me to pursue a side quest outside of my major. I use the term side quest to refer to anything seemingly random pursued out of one’s own pure interest and enjoyment. Even though you won’t find writing for the Observer on my official transcript, it’s brought me more fulfillment than many of the required things I’ve done for credit at the University.
“So that's my answer,” he said. “Find the side quests. [They] might lead you somewhere that actually does count.”
Maybe that’s why I prioritize this series so much — each interview is its own kind of side quest, an excuse to get lost in someone else’s story. Kelly agreed. “It's a real luxury to be able to, you know, more or less, knock on somebody’s door and say: ‘Hey, can I ask you a bunch of questions?’”
I’m lucky to have enjoyed this luxury for an hour with Kelly. He’s nailed exactly why I love writing this column: to knock on the doors of interesting people like him, and ask them a bunch of questions. Even if – actually, especially if – it counts for zero credit.
Allison Elshoff is a senior business analytics major with minors in the Hesburgh Program of Public Service and impact consulting. Her top three things to exist are hammocks, outfit repeating and mini spoons. You can reach her at aelshoff@nd.edu.
