The Provincetown Independent, in collaboration with its nonprofit partner, the Local Journalism Project, last week welcomed its fifth cohort of summer journalism fellows for 10 weeks of work and learning in our newsroom. The program, which has produced award-winning reporting, is made possible by gifts from readers and supporters of the Outer Cape’s only independent newspaper. We are delighted to have them introduce themselves to you. —The editor

Jacob Smollen
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Brown University, Class of 2025
International and Public Affairs

I am a city kid at heart — more accustomed to hopping a crowded bus than cruising by Cape Cod Bay toward Provincetown on Route 6. Nonetheless, I have always felt connected to the Cape. For many summers, I visited my grandparents for a week at their home in Dennis, where they lived for over 30 years.

The tidal flats in Brewster shaped my mental image of this place. A trip to the flats, which stretch for miles at low tide, invites an openness to exploration, a willingness to squish your feet in the mud, walk, and dig. As a child, I found excavating various types of crabs along the path and placing them in a sand-based “crab hotel” a compelling adventure. It seemed the possible discoveries (although many of mine were crab-related) were endless.

For the past couple of years, I’ve worked at my college’s newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald, covering and editing stories about local and state politics and working as the co-editor of the paper’s podcasting team. In the classroom, I’ve interspersed my political science classes with workshops on creative nonfiction. Some of my favorite stories have taken shape in audio form, including a history of nudity on Brown’s campus (it involves Tucker Carlson) and of the first intercollegiate women’s hockey team in the country, the Pembroke Pandas.

I have learned to love the stories that, like the flats, require digging and wading through nuance and complication for best results.

Off campus, I’ve spent my last three summers working with WHYY, Philadelphia’s public radio station. Last year, that meant teaching local middle and high school students how to write a lead — the opening sentences that frame a story — and how to film an interview. The program is one I went through myself as a high schooler. Before that, I contributed to the station’s local news outlet Billy Penn and its science podcast The Pulse as part of a youth employment program.

In my mind, the common thread is the people. The chance to meet and learn from so many interesting people each day is the real privilege of journalism. I am so excited to join this Outer Cape community and I can’t wait to walk out into the flats and start digging with you all soon.