Athena von Bothmer ‘21
A L U M N I C O L U M N
As a CNN National Correspondent, Athena Jones, a powerhouse of a woman, and fellow Cate Alum, lives and works in New York City.
CNN
"Read, read, read and write, write, write. Whether you end up working in politics or journalism, it is always important to keep abreast of current events and to develop your skills as a writer. The best thing you can do is read the news. As for following the news every day, I can be pretty obsessive."
Upon graduating from Cate School in 1994, Jones excelled at Harvard University, majoring in Government and graduating cum laude. Continuing her interest in politics and journalism, Jones earned an MS in Journalism from Columbia University. Since then, Jones has traveled world-wide covering the news, including debates over immigration reform, the Affordable Care Act, the war against ISIS, Supreme Court decisions, debt and budget issues, the arts, Ebola, the Covid-19 pandemic and its unequal impact on minority communities, stories related to the #MeToo movement, and the movement for racial and social justice. Prior to joining CNN, Jones reported for MSNBC and NBC was part of a team that produced an NBC special, “Inside the Obama White House.” Most famously, Athena Jones covered the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and later the Obama administration. She covered former President Donald Trump as a CNN White House correspondent during the commencement of his presidential term. Aside from being one of the most accomplished journalists in the field and having a remarkably successful career, Athena Jones has won the battle against breast cancer. Twice.
Dr. Moore’s Advanced Politics in Contemporary America class had the pleasure of meeting with Athena Jones over Zoom in early September of 2020. She spoke on a range of issues: how she got to where she is now, her experiences, the differences in covering Obama versus Trump, today’s political climate, and the November 2020 election. I asked Jones, “How do you respond to people, like our own president, calling CNN ‘fake news’?” She responded that it has been frustrating for journalists and has made reporters work twice as hard. She is concerned that people are not being able to agree on basic truth and facts, asserting, “If you don’t trust the experts, we don’t know where we are. That’s frightening.” But when Trump supporters accuse her or CNN of being biased, Jones is still able to keep it cool because she knows she’s just doing her job: delivering the truth. “We’re (CNN) not anti-Trump, we’re pro-truth.”
Recently, I reconnected with Athena Jones and learned more about her Cate experience. Below are her responses to my questions:
Could you share a bit about your Cate experience? What were some of your interests and what were you involved in?
Gosh, what wasn’t I involved in? I feel like I tried to take advantage of everything Cate had to offer. In junior high school, I had been involved in sports, music and drama and speech competitions, and I continued these activities at Cate and explored others, like photography, which I came to enjoy, and surfing, which I never mastered, but had a fun time trying. I also had fun singing and dancing in the spring musical each year, singing in Chorale and traveling with my team for track, soccer and basketball competitions. And I was involved in community service, volunteering at a homeless shelter in Santa Barbara and traveling to Mexico for community service projects a couple of times with Los Niños, which was a blast.
Outside of activities organized by the school, the best thing about being at Cate was being surrounded by kids my age 24/7 and developing close friendships.
I also got permission to organize excursions for groups of students to movies in Santa Barbara and once helped put together a dance for the student body so we could all blow off steam.
What’s your favorite memory from your time at Cate?
Superlatives are often hard for me, especially all these years later (27 years!), but bonding with my friends during Outings Week every year is definitely one of the highlights. One of many Outings Week memories that has stuck with me was from our sophomore year trip to a camp in (I think) Sequoia National Forest. We had fun hiking and swimming and sitting around the campfire, and we also played a lot of games, including Trivial Pursuit. I still remember the question our team missed that lost us a game once: What did the Wicked Witch of the West write in the sky over Oz? The answer is Surrender Dorothy, and I have never forgotten it. I guess that speaks to my competitive side, something my experience at Cate certainly nurtured, in a good way.
Who or what inspired you the most at Cate?
Again, “most” is hard for me to answer, but I can tell you that I have especially fond memories of time spent with my advisee group and my adviser, Mr. Bonning, and of my AP biology teacher Mrs. Powers, and I loved the fact that some of my favorite teachers – like Mr. Barton and Mr. Weis – were also my track coaches. Spending so much time with friends and having teachers serving in multiple roles made Cate feel like one big, extended family.
Convocations and formal dinners were also a highlight of my time at Cate. They exposed us to all sorts of people and ideas, and it was great to have a reason to dress up with friends in an otherwise super casual environment. We would eagerly check out the table assignments every two weeks (at least, I think it was every two weeks) when the tables would rotate.
What’s something you wish you took advantage of at Cate?
This is a tough one for me. I feel like I took advantage of everything Cate had to offer. I only wish I had realized how quickly it would go by and appreciated it all so much more. Same thing with college. I’ll never have that much downtime again until I retire!
But if you really want an answer, I’d say one of the only regrets that comes to mind is that I did not try to test out of Algebra, so that I could begin freshman year with Geometry. I later found both a breeze, although I’m better at words than numbers, and felt I’d let myself down by not trying to advance. I must have learned my lesson, because in my later years at Cate, I took enough AP classes and tests -- History, Biology, etc -- to graduate from Harvard in three years. It saved money and allowed me to leave after my first two years to spend what would have been my junior year interning for a congressman in Washington and studying abroad (for class credits I didn’t need) in Madrid, before returning that final year to graduate with my class. My time in DC and Spain had an enormous impact on my future. I ended up living and working in South America for four years and covering Washington as a journalist for almost nine. So maybe, in the end, even that one regret turned into a positive thing: A lesson learned.
How do you think Cate prepared you for the “real world”?
Cate was a tight-knit, nurturing community, where it felt like everyone knew everyone’s name and where they were from, and it offered a competitive academic environment, with small classes where everyone was encouraged to participate in lively discussions and extracurricular activities and excursions that thrilled and challenged us (I’m talking about hiking for miles and miles during junior Outings Week and Mrs. Ellis’ “flat coastal hike” that wasn’t; freshman year.)
It was an environment that instilled a lot of confidence in me that I didn’t appreciate in many ways until later. I felt valued and listened to at Cate and learned critical thinking and time management skills. It made adjusting to college a breeze!
I really enjoyed assemblies, where students and teachers could stand and make announcements. It was good practice for speaking before a crowd, just like our class discussions were great for teaching us how to shape a convincing argument, whatever the topic. I also feel that Cate’s focus on writing helped provide a strong foundation that I took to college and beyond.
How did you make it to where you are today?
Short version: ambition, adventurousness, hard work, preparation, strategic thinking and calculated risk-taking.
Longer version: I pursued a field that interested me and that I felt I would be good at – writing/public speaking/journalism. I studied, then took advantage of an opportunity to move to Chile, sight unseen, for an internship with Bloomberg News that turned into a job across the Andes in Argentina. About a year later, I switched to another news service – Reuters –where I worked for the rest of the four years I spent in South America. When I returned to the U.S., I made the turn to television, working behind the scenes for NBC News and later CNN, and then returned to NBC when they gave me a chance to cover Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. By May of 2008, when it became clear Clinton would not win the nomination, I was moved to Obama’s campaign, which I covered until Election Day and beyond. I ended up working as a producer at the White House for 2.5 years, occasionally appearing on the air, and then CNN offered to hire me as a correspondent. I jumped at the chance and have never looked back, though after almost 9 years in Washington focused almost entirely on politics, I’m now living in New York City, where I am able to cover some politics, but also a wider variety of topics -- or at least, I was before the pandemic. These days, about 99% of what I cover is Covid-related. But this too shall pass.
What advice do you have for Cate students who are interested in pursuing a career in politics and the media?
This is the easiest of all your questions! Read, read, read and write, write, write. Whether you end up working in politics or journalism, it is always important to keep abreast of current events and to develop your skills as a writer. The best thing you can do is read the news. As for following the news every day, I can be pretty obsessive.
Success in both of these industries relies on your ability to communicate well. I’d argue that in almost any job you take down the line, in any field, being able to communicate well, make strong arguments and to be able to support them, will be key. Also, figure out what you’re good at and what positions in the fields of politics or media will best fit your skills and your interests. Do you love to write? Do you enjoy public speaking? Do you like operating behind the scenes, being in charge of planning and logistics? Are you interested in political messaging and strategy? You can answer yes to all of the above or none of the above. Whatever you’re interested in, try it. Of course, this list isn’t long enough to encompass all the possibilities, so see what’s out there.
You may not yet know what you want to do because you don’t have a good enough sense of all the possibilities. Be open to learning about jobs, or fields or experiences that may lead you in a different direction. As a freelance segment producer at CNN in the mid-2000s, my job consisted of interviewing guests for the show and preparing questions for the anchor. It was a great stepping stone that I never knew existed until I entered the world of TV news. So keep your eyes open, be ready to learn and to seize the opportunities that present themselves and to make some of your own.
Athena Jones is someone we can all look up to and learn from, and we should take her precious advice under careful consideration.
Comments