Your authors are journalists and students at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. The authors are Colby Hamilton, Dana Rapoport, Christopher F. Schuetze, Simone Sebastian and Walter Smith-Randolph. They can be reached at nyctracks@gmail.com
Simone Sebastian is a native of the nation’s capital for cars, toll-free expressways and goofy left turns – Detroit, Mich. She moved to New York in 1999, developing a special perspective on the conveniences (no car insurance) and inconveniences (waiting for trains on weekends) of public transportation. While a student Columbia University and city news editor for the Columbia Daily Spectator, Simone was a frequent rider of the old 1/9. She now lives on the A/C and B/D lines in uptown Manhattan. She has interned at five daily newspapers and reported full-time for four, including the San Francisco Chronicle and The Columbus Dispatch. Following the industry trend, Simone is making the leap from print to interactive journalism.
Colby Hamilton has lived in New York City since 2003. He attended undergrad at Emerson College in Boston, where he studied creative writing. He has published pieces in the Brooklyn Rail and has shared bylines on New York Daily News stories. Colby lives in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Dana Rapoport grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel and received a BA with honors in History and Theatre from Tel Aviv University in 2006. After graduating, Dana became a Foreign-Desk News Editor for Israel’s largest broadcast news channel, Channel2. Dana has worked as a freelance writer for the Channel2 News website as the New York correspondent. Among other issues, she has covered the 2008 US campaign and elections. Dana is interested in studying International reporting and reporting on U.S. foreign policy in new-media and broadcast television. Since she can’t read while moving, public transportation have always been the perfect excuse for her to be an observer. And there’s no better city in the world to observe than New York.
Walter Smith-Randolph was born and raised in New York City. He graduated from Villanova University with a B.A. in Communication. After graduation, he was the NABJ/NBC News Fellow at MSNBC in New York City. He currently attends the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism where he is pursuing a Master’s in Journalism, focusing on urban reporting, interactive media, and broadcasting. Walter has interned at WCAU/NBC 10 Philadelphia, PBS’ Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, and News 12 Long Island. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists. A life long rider of the Queens-bound F train, Walter is interested in all things MTA. An Astoria resident, he is affected by the proposed cut of the W train.
Christopher F. Schuetze comes to journalism via history and science, where he has a background in genetics. He is studying international journalism in the hopes of becoming the taller version of Ryszard Kapuściński. He thinks that despite its many flaws, the MTA is the single greatest, most important institution of his adopted home-city. He is particularly fascinated by its century-old history of moving people and shaping streets, bridges, neighborhoods, and boroughs. He likes the C train for its cars, the Q train for the view and the 1 train for its history.
